Bad kicker...maybe not so bad

[AaronBrown]

Aside from the advice you've had already, I would add that the importance of kickers declines for smaller cards. AJo has a 45% edge over ATo (it wins 69% versus 24%) while A3o has only a 6% edge over A2o (it wins 28% versus 22%). The lower the kicker, the less likely it is to figure in the final hand. So once you decide to play A-small for whatever reason, how small is not too important. But the difference between two high cards is often large.