Ace with small kicker - what to do pre-flop?

peter27

What would you usually do if having say A3, unsuited, out of position?

I have been playing a mixture of raising and calling but every time I don't flop anything at all and have to fold. What should you be doing pre-flop though? Does your action change depending on if your cards were suited?

Thanks!

Talon

  Few things come to mind with your post.

 Firstly is it tournaments or cash, makes a big difference.

 So assuming cash and deep we will go through it.

  Right so for a start remove the call from your play. Your options should be limited to raise or fold. Either takecontrol or run away. With these rag aces you are either going to hit top pair bad kicker or bottom pair neither of which you can feel overly confident with playing down the streets. So out of position these are a snap fold for me. If you have position then you can play them and remember that you are not playing your hand as such because you can represent a bigger hand by taking the betting lead.

  As far as folding on the flop when you miss it seems you are playing fit or fold poker. Again this is not a good thing to be doing. With unpaired cards you will only hit 1 in 3 flops. This means when you play these hands you are folding two thirds of flops and dont know where you are in the other third. Fit or fold works best when you play cards that can hit big on the flop, like suited connectors and small pairs. With these you know exactly where you are on the flop and can play appropriately.

 So in a nutshell i would suggest just folding these hands pre flop especially out of position. Tighten up your range somewhat and be aggressive everytime you enter a pot. Hope some of this helps

GELDY

& if in a tournament similar to Talon's cash advice except you should fold more!

if suited then fit & fold is not so bad as you can hit big, but if oop with active players behind you are often best not to get involved, as you won't want to call a raise. ip or a passive table then you can go for it more often.

peter27

Okay guys, that really helps - thanks!

I am (95% of the time) an MTT player by the way, just for the record :-)