Ax suited

Will someone please explain to me why I shouldn't play Ax suited in an 8-16 holdem game that normally has 4-5 way action on the flop. I capable of laying it down when an A hits if a tight player bets or raises, but sometimes I pay off loose players. also should I be defending my blinds with this hand, to early vs. late pos. raisers? all comments welcome. ty

You should play Ax suited in many situations. If you are in a game where you consistently get 4 opponents or more and little raising then the hand becomes playable from early position as long as you play it well. If the game is agressive then you will want to fold it from early position. Also if the game is tight then the hand becomes unplayable because you are now not getting enough of a multiway pot to make the hand profitable. If the game is tght and it has been folded to you in one of the later middle positions it may now become a raising hand if you feel that there is a chance you can steal the blinds or at least get it heads up with one of the blinds. Anyway, the times where these hands do best is in unraised multiway pots or to ry and steal the blinds, so that is probably the main guideline you want to keep in your mind when playing the hand.

As for defending blinds, be careful when against a selective early position raiser, but if the pot is multiway then it becomes playable because of the additional money in the pot, just beware of flopping an ace and being outkicked.

I think this hand is playable from the back after a few or more limpers. But there'd have to be very little pre-flop raising AND a high likelihood of multi-way action for me to play AXs up front. These games do exist, but they are rare at 10-20 or higher. IMO-