Bad suited aces

[TOmCowley]

I'm chiefly talking about A9 and worse, although AT/AJ can fall into the category sometimes.

There's the 5/10 rule for calling with a pair trying to hit a set, which makes sense because your hand is hidden and usually relatively easy to play, at least in the fact that it's difficult to get your money in the pot on the flop when you have the current worst of it (set over set, or a flopped random straight), and even if you run into a S/F, you have 7+10 outs.

With bad suited aces, I usually limp unless I'm first-in late, in which case my raising standards go way down. If I flop a flush draw, I can play "normally" for a drawing hand. If I whiff completely, or hit low pair and people bet, I can punt it without a second thought. If an A comes and somebody bets ~pot in front of me (assume the pot is at least 4-way, I'm not looking for the nuances of HU play), I'll usually fold, and definitely fold if somebody else calls. If it's checked to me, I usually fire and slow down if somebody calls me (TPNK is still TP). Am I losing value by folding bad aces even when I make TP? I fold A8o so I won't be in this situation, but I get there anyway with A8s. Should I generally be reraising to 3-4x the original bet (against 1 raiser, no callers) just to see if I pick up the pot, and folding to a reraise or a stop-and-go? (obviously not against a calling station who'll show down any AA).


Also, what value do suited aces have against a preflop raise? They seem much worse than set-hunting, just because it's a lot easier to flop a 2nd best hand and because the nut hand isn't hidden at all. Sometimes Ax 2-pair is hidden, but it's also dodging 6+9, and you don't know if the K or the Q (or even the J sometimes) that came down is a blank or the card that beat you. Bad suited Aces are marginally losing hands for me in PT (and I pound NL50, ~10BB/100hands), so either the hands just suck and I should play them less, or I'm doing something wrong. Is it worth calling small raises with Axs, and is there any rule of thumb about how much? Assume stacks are the online normal 50-100BB range, although advice for deep stack play is welcome too.