How Do You Play A9 sOOted?

[TomBrooks]

How do you play A9 sOOted?
This is how I play it. And apparently it's not working. Maybe I ought to pop it more preflop, especially first in, like I do with ATs? Or maybe stop cold calling with it? Is A9s much different from ATs?

(Obvious from this screenshot, I just noticed my ATo is doing lousy too. Probably I'm limping with it too much.)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/TomBrooklyn/A9sHowPlayThis-MyBiggestLoser.jpg

[atnels]

CCPF w/ A9s? Yuck. When you start getting into really loose games when there are like 4-5 cold callers and you're on the button or something, sure, but otherwise I think its an easy fold.

[Niediam]

You should know that 61 is an extremely small sample size. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I definatly raise with it when I'm first one in from MP2 or later...

[Marquis]

What's with all the cold calling?

[aK13]

95 VPIP????????????

ATs is a raise UTG, A9s is not.

Neither is a cold calling hand, unless there are TONS of players in between.

[milesdyson]

A significant % of the times you've VPIP'd with A9s have come from coldcalling preflop. Not good. You've also coldcalled 3 times with ATo - that's really asking for trouble.

If you hold ATo and a maniac raises in front of you, you 3-bet, you don't coldcall. And ATo is not one of those hands you "coldcall after 2 or 3 coldcallers."

[Aaron W.]

Where to begin?

#1 - 9 coldcalls out of 61 times you've seen the hand? That's a good place to start looking for problems.
#2 - VPIP at 95%? That's high, probably because of #1.
#3 - Bad luck? It's probably happening, but that's not the real reason you're doing so poorly.

You should do a study of how you are actually playing these A9s hands. Are you ending up in situations where you have the worst of it? Or are you just getting outdrawn? With only 61 hands, you should be able to breeze through them in about 30 minutes. If everything looks routine, then you have a much bigger task of figuring out whether your routine is actually correct.

[bottomset]

aren't you one of the 28VPIP guys?

seriously stop coldcalling with it so much, same with ATo

[gvibes]

If a table is getting waek-tight, or playing a little short, I'll raise it UTG. As everyone else, you cold-call a disgusting amount of times.

[TripleH68]

[ QUOTE ]
What's with all the cold calling?

[/ QUOTE ]

Only 52 hands but...

VP$IP 54%
PFR 23%
CCPF 0
bb/hand 0.21

[TomBrooks]

[ QUOTE ]
Aaron W sed: #1 - 9 coldcalls out of 61 times #2 - VPIP at 95%? #3 - Bad luck? You should do a study of how you are actually playing these A9s hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks to all for the feedback. Looking through all the hands was an excellent idea. I was amazed to find some of my plays were scarily donkish. I have to suspect some of these came from multitabling and consequent suboptimal play. At least it was encouraging that I could still beat the .5/1 game soundly while making the occassional donkish play.

All my cold calls were at .5/1, none at 1/2. I got out of almost all of the CC'd hands for 2-3 small bets though, except for one on which I flopped a straight draw. Interestingly, I am slightly up on the CC'd hands. Small sample, of course. One thing I hadn't realized though, was that a lot of times I was up against AK. That was a little scary. I am in the habit of playing any AXs for one bet at .5/1 every time.

Since I'm concentrating at 1/2 now, cold calling might automatically become less of an issue, but I'll be more careful about it anyway. I'm seeing much tighter tables usually, but they are providing a lot of steal opportunities. I don't open limp anything.

On the tight 1/2 tables, I think A9x would be a decent raising hand first in and I think ATs definately. How about ATo?

On some tight 1/2 tables I haven't found raising first in particularly position sensitive. I've been able to stealing the blinds from EP sometimes almost as easily as from MP or LP. I don't have much experience here though. Just an intial observation. What do you think?

How about blind defence with A9s? Yes from the BB? Yes from the SB? Only from a late position raise? Call it or 3-bet? I'm inclined to call.

[LargeCents]

A9s continues to be and has always been the single biggest leak hand in my game. IMO, it is the single toughest hand to play in SSHE. Maybe it is all in my mind. My problem completely revolves around the situation when I spike my ace on the flop. The nine kicker is just big enough for me to justify continuing, usually incorrectly. I maybe should turn that nine into a deuce on the turn and maybe it will give me a more +EV. I constantly get shown down AJo, ATo making the pill even more bitter to swallow. I often get a free river showdown as well, due to preflop/flop/turn aggression. Can anyone show a "textbook" hand where they played A9s correctly? I have a hunch that I am playing it way too aggressive, or not letting go often enough.

[blackize]

If you hit an ace throw in a raise. If it gets called slow down. If you get reraised you probably need to fold.

[bottomset]

[ QUOTE ]
A9s continues to be and has always been the single biggest leak hand in my game. IMO, it is the single toughest hand to play in SSHE. Maybe it is all in my mind. My problem completely revolves around the situation when I spike my ace on the flop. The nine kicker is just big enough for me to justify continuing, usually incorrectly. I maybe should turn that nine into a deuce on the turn and maybe it will give me a more +EV. I constantly get shown down AJo, ATo making the pill even more bitter to swallow. I often get a free river showdown as well, due to preflop/flop/turn aggression. Can anyone show a "textbook" hand where they played A9s correctly? I have a hunch that I am playing it way too aggressive, or not letting go often enough.

[/ QUOTE ]

Top Pair is better than you give it credit for, and the 9 kicker plays a fair % of the time vs Ax smaller, so you don't chop, you scoop