AX suited

Ring game mid-late position with AX suited with raises in front of me.

I like to play this. If I dont get to more suit Im out to any raise.

Is this a bad play (am I fishing)?

Yes, you are fishing and are probably losing money in doing so for two reasons. Let's look at a little scenario.

Blinds are 1/2$ and UTG raises to 6$ and he has 80$. You're dealt A6h in middle position and have 150$. Now, if you call, you're probably way behind unless you're facing a loose opponent (one who is known to raise with air), because UTG raisers usually have the goods (bigger ace or pocket pair). The only way to improve is to:
a) Hit your flush
b) Hit two pairs (pairing that ace and the kicker, wich is very rare)

If you flop the flush, chances are opponents will not have hit strong enough to pay you off (implied odds aren't in your favor) and if the flop comes something like Ks4hQh, you haven't paired that ace and maybe your opponent has made trips or has paired his face card (AK hitting or AQ, for example) and he will probably bet the pot assuming it goes heads-up, meaning you'll have invested 20-22$ MINIMUM trying to win his 80$, wich is 4:1, but if you don't hit on the turn, he'll have to go all-in and then the pot odds and implied odds aren't going to be in your favor.

Also, if he is intelligent, he'll price out any flush attempts since people will know from his raise that he has high cards and chances are he has paired them: slowplaying when he has advertised his hand in this spot would be useless and counterproductive to him. So you're looking at paying a lot in order to set a trap that is unlikely to work.

Finally, someone can reraise behind you, making it very costly to call (and fish). I wouldn't play Ax suited from middle position unless that x was at least a J and then I would reraise to get heads up and try to outplay UTG by having position on him.


The only opponent I'd try this on would be someone who is very loose and agressive with a larger stack than mine, meaning that you have good implied odds to stack him if you hit by the turn, and then I'd try this in middle-late position CO +2 for example) in order to insure that I have less chances of someone reraising and pricing me out of my trap. With multiple raises before me, the Axs goes into the muck everytime since I won't have position in order to control the size of the pots and I'll be priced out of my flush draw (if it comes) a majority of the time from people trying to protect their pp or AK; AQ. It is a gamlber's move and it ha sits applications, but I don't see myself using it very often unless the right scenario pops out.