A hypothetical Axs question, grunch please

[JerseyTom]

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In all situations we have top pair on a drawless board with a preflop raiser and a bunch of callers. What hands do you want to protect against with a raise? If nobody else has an A they have 2 outs with pockets and 5 outs with a 9 or a 2.

Raising is great if the preflop raiser has a high pocket and a raise will make someone fold a better A, like A5, or if someone has a 9.
It's also great if the preflop raiser will define his hand with a 3-bet if he has a better A so we can fold the turn UI.

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I'm a little late to this discussion, but I'm glad someone else is asking this question (what are we protecting against).

The only reasonable holdings that we need to protect against are 9x and 2x, so I do what is necessary to face the field with 2 cold (raise if bet from my right, bet if PFR is to my left in hopes that he'll raise to clear the field). 9x and 2x have the odds to call 1 in hopes of hitting a 5-outer. If I can get another weak (but better than ours) ace to fold in this way, that would be swell.

If it's heads up after the flop, I'm probably just check-calling this down, betting the river if checked to, since we are WA/WB to the max... If it's 3-handed after the flop, hmm... someone probably has a better ace and I'm drawing slim to aces up or a split. Maybe I call down, but I feel icky doing it.


Tom

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I think this is the whole "you guys fold too much" + protecting your hand. Maybe not. I have a problem with this area because im kicker scared. But if we are going with protect your hand.

1) check raise a bet from the CO

2) Raise to protect your hand

3) bet to have utg+1 raise to protect your hand.

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