[Gronk]

Maybe that's not true but it's definitely the biggest hole in my game. I just can't seem to make money with this hand and I need some help.

Let's say I get dealt AKo in early position and raise to 4x the big blind...or 8x. A decent sized raise. Get one or two cold callers. It's an ace high uncoordinated flop. Something like ace 7 4. You bet big and they come over the top, now what? Fold? Wasn't that the flop you wanted? I don't feel like it's a strong enough hand to play back at them and every time I do I seem to lose my stack to aces up or a set. And if they cold called your preflop raise, maybe they too have ace king and their raise is now pushing you out of a split pot.

What if you raise preflop and the flop misses you? No aces or kings. Those cold callers could easily have a pocket pair. If you bet into them they'll either just call or play back at you. If you don't bet into them surely they'll bet and you'll have to decide whether 6 outs to a non-nut hand are worth the call to you.

I need help because I can't think of a good reason to play this hand. I lose more money with it than anything else. Unless it's suited and I flop a flush draw or I flop aces up or better, I fold for the minimum bet now and feel damn good when I do it. I've actually started folding it outright preflop if it's not suited and I haven't regretted it yet.

Can anyone tell me what I'm losing by folding this hand preflop? I'm tired of playing a hand that seems designed to win a small pot or lose a huge one, with the losing happening more often in my recent experience. I know this sounded kind of grumpy and I apologize but as far as I'm concerned right now it's garbage and not with the big blinds.