Review: Hand 63, A8o and Hand 69, 88

[topspin]

[ QUOTE ]
We have a slight equity edge PF:
17,574,114 games 243.741 secs 72,101 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity (%) win (%) / tie (%)

Hand 1: 16.1415 % [ 00.15 00.01 ] { random }
Hand 2: 16.1531 % [ 00.15 00.01 ] { random }
Hand 3: 16.1633 % [ 00.15 00.01 ] { random }
Hand 4: 16.1470 % [ 00.15 00.01 ] { random }
Hand 5: 16.1522 % [ 00.15 00.01 ] { random }
Hand 6: 19.2429 % [ 00.18 00.02 ] { As8h }


But that slightly +EV raise can be countered by the fact that you need to play this hand pimptastic postflop, and A8o is a hand that can easily be misplayed with a large field IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would fold this with a few limpers ahead. However, that is not the situation here. Looking at the last few hands, we see that the table is relatively tight, with perhaps 3-4 players to the flop on average. We're getting 2.5:1 odds in a situation where we're actually a favorite over a bunch of random hands. We're really only afraid of hands like AK-A9 and big pocket pairs, most of which are likely to re-raise us, in which case we play cautiously after the flop. We're unlikely to be dominated by most hands that just flat call.

You would auto-raise ATo here even with limpers and without the fold equity, no? Your slightly worse kicker is offset by the fact that you already know that half the table doesn't want to get involved plus the dead money from the poster.