Re: How many people do YOU like to have in the pot before you call with Ax
How would you play it if you had Ax in the big blind and flopped an ace? If you're not someone who'll push hard with top pair(aces)/weak kicker until you're given a very good reason to stop, you're only getting the flush potential and have to de-value this sort of hand quite a lot.
Play the hands you're comfortable with. If A9s the lowest kicker you'd consider sufficient to push a flopped pair of aces, cut it off there, because otherwise you're going to find yourself in a situation where you need to drop if you don't flop a flush or 4 flush, or 2 pair or better (maybe pair and 3 flush if you're feeling adventurous).
It's the combination of ace and flush potential that give these hands so much value. One of those 'sum of the parts' type things. Take away either, and your strategy has to change. Hence your comment correcting the subject line. It's the same sort of thing when you remove the ace part of the equation.
As in every decision, you need to take the number of opponents, quality of opponents, and pot size into account... but I'll push any time I hit a pair of aces (with any kicker) unless I have a good reason not to. Which means that I don't much mind if I don't get many callers. In that case, I'm in a short-handed pot with more liklihood of my top pair holding up. On the other hand, if I get lots of callers I might need to improve beyond top pair more often, but I'm also getting good odds with a bigger pot.
The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to play Axs from anywhere.
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