ATo Pre-Flop

[skirtus]

I'm starting to sift through my hand histories to see what hands give me the most trouble. ATo has been draining my bankroll consistantly. I've been playing it in too early a position mainly. Here are 2 hands where I played it in the CO. With 2 limpers in front should I raise to try and knock out button, sb, and BB or is it better to just call and see what the flop brings? If several limpers from early position should I just fold this hand?


Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is CO with T/images/graemlins/club.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, MP3 folds, Hero calls, Button calls, SB folds, BB checks.


Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: Hero is CO with T/images/graemlins/club.gif, A/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls.

[Bill Smith]

My default play with ATo is to muck, but my personal feeling is that if you play it outside of the blinds, you have to raise it. Here's the rule of thumb I tend to follow, but others here might disagree.

Raise if:
1. Position is CO, Button or SB, AND
2. There is only one limper OR two limpers I don't respect, AND
3. I don't have any particularly aggressive players in the blinds.

Call if:
1. SB with 2+ limpers

Pretty much fold the rest. Usually you don't want to be at a table where you're commonly finding yourself wondering if you should play ATo - on a nice loose-passive table, it should rarely come to you in LP with only 1 limper.

[adanthar]

At 3/6 and 5/10, I play ATo about half the time. Usually, I'll open muck it EP or raise it if the table is tight, auto open raise in MP and later (or fold if there are good limpers in EP) and alternate calling/raising it with 1-2 limpers in LP (but raising is better if the blinds can fold). Yes, I'm making money with it, though not all that much.

That's just to give you an idea. AT is relatively similar to hands like KQ/KJ; it's going to dominate horrible preflop players most of the time, but you really want to be heads up *or* have position. You can open raise it, as long as you know not to call a raise with it, and as long as you won't get 7 callers (if you will, muck.) It's also a much stronger hand in LP when there hasn't been a raise, for obvious reasons (but again, watch out for the ultra weak tighties in front of you that limp AJ and even AQ.)

Basically, I think that with hands like AT and KJ, you will do far better at weak/tight tables than you will at LAGgy ones or those with calling stations. If you know that and treat your raises as steals, you should be able to do well.