AXs opening in mp

[BottlesOf]

Some people in my posted hand say fold this. I do not fold pf in this situation unless it's a particular aggressive or tricky table. What do you guys think?

I usually limp or raise, and if I'm first in, I'm raising.

[mosta]

I only open limp in early position, with hands like KQs/KJs, 88 (or so for PP), and for a suited ace at least like A9s or maybe A8s, when I think I have a very good chance of not getting raised, or if raised at least in a large field. I don't open limp in middle position. I'm not going to open A7, suited or not, raise or limp, in middle position. A middle position limp cries out to be isolated, and the shorter the field gets, the less suitedness matters.

[Alobar]

If I'm in MP with Axs and there is no one in the pot I usually fold, unless I know that there will be several callers behind me and no raise. But most of the time its a fold. There arnt going to be enough people in the pot for the odds to limp, and if you raise your playing out of posistion with a crappy ace. Only way I raise is if I think I've got a chance to fold it out all the way to the blinds or even steal the blinds. But if I'm at that kind of table, usually I'm looking for another table

[mat]

raise? your raise is most likley to limit the field even more Axs needs callers. if you think you can steal the blind from there would be the only reason i could think of to raise. limping makes more sense but you still want callers, if the game texture makes you think youll get them limp but folding is still a pretty obvious choice in a tight or tough game

[Joe826]

this dudes got it right

[Piers]

In tight games and passive games I think Axs is playable in any position. Although A2,A3 and A6 are probably about neutral EV UTG at a full table. Aggressive games are the ones where you want to be folding most Axs early and in mid position.

Of course if someone has already raised drop them all like a hot potato.

[MarkD]

What's your saw flop %?

[Alobar]

my VP$IP is about 17%

[MarkD]

I ask because I think I play too tight and I open raise with Axs just as Bottles does.

I've been loosening up a bit lately and my VP$IP is is 16.46%.

I wonder what you play that I don't since I've been open raising a lot with Axs, ATo, KJo lately where I used to muck them.

[Alobar]

where are you open raising ATo and KJo from? I hope its not an auto raise for you now

[MarkD]

No. Mid / late-mid position. I've had a lot of success with this play lately, albeit a small sample size.

I have a hard time figuring out what you guys are playing that I don't. It seems most people play looser than I do (until lately) and some of the hands I've added in recently are hands I don't think are too great.

What's your VP%SB?

[BottlesOf]

My VPI$P is actually a hair under 16% /images/graemlins/shocked.gif


I think I may be too tight too. I will be posting my 10K pt stats soon so hopefully you guys will pick up some other things. Thanks for all the responses.

[Alobar]

my VP$SB is very low, but thats because I play 3/6 mostly and the SB is 1/3 of a bet instead of half. I think its somewhere in the neighborhood of 18%

[tj00]

I have recently changed my thinking on this play. Previously I would open raise with Axs, now I am folding it. I found I was getting cold called too often and the blinds defended regularly. The resulting post flop situation never seemed to work out for me. I still raise A8s/A9s most of the time.

[Joe Tall]

This is purely a game-type decision.

I nearly always raise w/it in the CO-1 (LMP) but EMP, I need some reads and a good prediction of action behing me. Can I gain position, blinds-loose/weak, etc.

Basically, it depends. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Peace,
Joe Tall