Playing Ace-Queen Pre-Flop: Phil Gordon

In his Little Green Book, Phil Gordon advocates playing Ace-Queen from all positions, unless you've decided to play tight in which case he does not advocate playing from the first two positions (Gordon, pp. 262-67). Phil doesn't give a lot of explanation as to how to play A-Q in the face of action but does specify that his recommendations as to A-Q are based on the premise that you are first into the pot and raising, you don't know much about your opponents, all stacks are average size, and the blinds are small in reference to the stacks. Phil doesn't provide much more guidance than this on playing AQ pre-flop in his Little Green Book. I'll update if necessary after reading his little blue book.

Playing Ace-Queen From Early Position Pre-Flop: Cloutier/McEvoy v. Harrington

Just to be perfectly clear, this analysis compares T.J. Cloutier and Tom McEvoy's Championship No-Limit and Pot-Limit Hold 'Em to Dan Harrington's, Harrington on Hold 'em, Vol. 1. Specifically, this entry refers to the part of Cloutier/McEvoy's book that applies to No-Limit tournaments. Harrington's book is soley devoted to N0-Limit tournaments, so no clarification needed for him.

Ace-Queen is a tricky starting hand because you can be in a bind if you flop an A or a Q. Why? If an A, then your Q kicker is beat by someone who started with A-A or A-K. If you flop a Q, you've still got to worry about overcards on the flop and later rounds. So what do these two sets of experts say to do when you're holding A-Q in early position (which Harrington defines as the first two seats at a 10-seat table--a definition I'll adopt here)?

Cloutier/McEvoy advise you to fold, or at best, limp in and fold if you get raised when you're holding A-Q in the first two seats (C/M, pp. 128-129).

Harrington, who is generally considered a conservative player, advises playing the A-Q in early position (Harrington, pp. 182-83). He advocates raising with the hand before the flop, 75% of the time and calling 25% of the time (calls are just to vary your play). As for amount of raise, Harrington says 3-5 times the big blind. Harrington' s advice is apparently based on his belief that A-Q is a pretty good hand when there aren't a lot of players in the pot but not so good otherwise. Thus, an early position raise is intended to narrow the field.