Flopped trips, had bad kicker. He raises, I fold. Need advice on my playing style. Lo

Ok, so this is what happened: there was a caller from UTG1+2, and I look down and see A4. I have 15. I decided to call as I doubted a raise-steal wold have worked.

the flop comes, AAK, rainbow

SB raises 2 blinds, followed by UTG1 who reraises it 3 times, to a total of 6 blinds. up to me. What should I do in this spot? I cannot call with the intention of seeing his next move, as he would raise there if he is bluffing or actually got it. Since there was two raises one of them must have an ace, and if they did, it would most likely beat mine.

I ended up folding the hand. For this reason I usually fold these sorts of hands, but lately I have not been running particularly well and thought that I should loosen up a bit. I have only been playing hands with at least a 10+ kicker, only reasonably good positions unless the hand is a monster. I call with pockets if they have 15+blinds and call with suited connectors if they have 50+ blinds. When I decide to play a hand, I raise it to 3 blinds + 1 for every limper. These raises are huge compared to a good majority of the players I'm up against. This has not been working very well; last night for a little under 2 hours of live poker I only played 2 hands, one of them which I would not normally play but I thought I better play some hands. I was particualry card dead than night, usually play a roughly about 1 card per 30 mins, maybe more; we shuffle fairly slow. I can get away with steals a bit because of my super tight image, but they're too many calling stations where I play at to do it often. Last night I probably lost 15% of my original stack to the blinds. We got down to 5 players so I started making some moves.

So, should I loosen up a bit more? A decent majority of the players I'm up against player any k, q, no matter the kicker. So if I start playing hands with 8+ kicker I will still be ahead most of the time. Or is what I'm doing fine? I haven't mastered push fold mode so when I do this might go well with my style. What do you guys think? Honest criticism please.

Oh, I play in turbos by the way

Yes, you have to loosen up. Especially if you play turbos.
I know it's uncomfortable to be less nitty, but turbos do not give you time to wait for a premium hand. My inclination is towards nittiness also, and I have to force myself out of this.

Yes, you say you play lesser hands when you have more chips, but I'd say work more on position play and playing the player. Focus less on your cards (a little less anyway.)

And you cannot realistically fold flopped trips. Even with an awful kicker. You gotta take some chances here and there. You can't get far if you wait long in turbos.

Accept that your hand can be beat and then go for it with a grin.

Also -- on the above hand, with no preflop raises, there is a pretty good chance that if one of the others did have the other A, he also had a poor kicker. There is a decent chance at splitting that pot.

im sorry but calling preflop in early position after an early position raise with 15bb's is very very bad... and no i dont think you can fold the flop.. if one of them has an ace. so be it.. but you had no reason to be in the hand in the first place...

oh and if you have a big stack.. especially in turbos. use those chips to get more chips.. with a big stack. it will let you open your range. with a smaller stack. were obv going to be much tighter.. looking for good spots to shove and resteal..

a big stack on the bubble of a tournament is like a license to steal pots..

Why do you call if you decide to fold after you hit trips!?
Two cards to come and you are only beaten by AK. (Or KK)
Otherwise there will be a split pot...
But no raise before you, so there is no need to think that someone is playing that cards.
IF you play hands like that by calling then you have to play them if you hit your A.....

It's a fold hand. Just because you have an ace doesn't mean the hand is good. And remember even if the A 4 is suited it only gives you 4% better odds.

When he put in the raise-it was such a small raise that he most likely hit the king and wanted to see if you were bluffing the ace. That's when you push. If he's got then he's got it. But one card left in the deck you gotta push.

As an aside, can you please post things like this in the actual "hand analysis" (HA) section? The benefit of the HA section is it helps you create specific thread titles. Also, if this hand is from online, please convert it using a hand converter ( http://www.handconverter.com ), rather than typing it out. These two things make it much easier to get feedback about your play.

It will be alright to loosen up a bit because it can be a very long time before you pick up a hand that qualifies good enough for you. I play as tight as you, but am yet to play in any live events, but online play tight as you but loosen up a bit when its not going to well or when I start very well. But if i'm keeping up with the average I continue to play tight aggressive poker. Well hope to hear you become a little more loose and more successful, GL.

OOH yea, forgot to mention that when I first started playing very tight poker I would fold trips with crappy kickers unless I knew my opponent was a complete donk/fish which most of time they were. Know I do my best not to get involved with hands with crappy kicker unless i'm on the button or in better position, or if i'm on a very tight table and can get away with stealing pots. I also prefer playing hands with 10+ kickers but also try to stay away from certain hands from early position.

i woulda pushed thier, not gonna get many better chances then that, plus those guys were giving you great pot odds.