(How to) play weak Aces in BB against early positions?

[Andyreas]

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

 

[puzzlefish]

It is if you get a cheap flop and flop 2 pairs.

 

[IRINA70]

It seems to me that it makes sense to see the flop if there are no other raises and a raise from early position is less than 2.5bb, and then - according to circumstances. But I personally fold such an ace most often, especially in the later stages of the game precisely because of the weakness of the kicker and the high probability of not hitting my two pair

 

[theStarfish]

This is not an easy spot, at least not for me. Most of the time I simply fold small Aces from the BB after a EP raise. You are dominated too often imo. But if you can see the flop for a good price, you can certainly call, especially when your ace is suited and/or small (because of the straight possibility). At least, that´s what I think

 

[bananovsky1999]

If the A is offsuited and the raise comes from EP with no other callers (no pot odds) and i have no info about the villain, i generally just fold

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

I think that if you called pre-flop, the best play will always be check-call when you hit the A, don't see a reason to lead and don' t see a reason to check-raise

 

[Aballinamion]

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

I know nothing about tournaments mate and without trying to disagree I would like to show my thoughts on this:
1 - We shouldn’t bet because our opponent is a fish or a whale but because we believe it will fold its best hands (bluff) or call with dominated ones (value). We also don’t bet to get information or out of curiosity.
I’m basic on tournaments but I risk to say that it depends on our stack sizing compared/related to villain’s stack and which level of blinds we are in.
For cash games we are avoiding calling weak aces from BB from any position, specially to defend x EP: at cash tables it’s better to 3-bet most of our weak off suited aces instead of calling.

 

[ratbat615]

I always have this problem but after studying 📑 Pre flop I just don’t play weak Ax’s from the bb when it’s opened from early position hope these help my friend love 💕

 

[valduer]

View attachment 326655View attachment 326656View attachment 326657I always have this problem but after studying 📑 Pre flop I just don’t play weak Ax’s from the bb when it’s opened from early position hope these help my friend love 💕

Which program are u using there? You actually simulated open raises from late positions instead of EP but from the CO chart you can already guess that it's a negative EV play from earlier positions according to GTO

I think it's okay to call a min raise from time to time but it's a fold for me against a cbet OTF unless I got 2pair or above (and excluding trips with 2 aces on the board)

 

[ratbat615]

Which program are u using there? You actually simulated open raises from late positions instead of EP but from the CO chart you can already guess that it's a negative EV play from earlier positions according to GTO

I think it's okay to call a min raise from time to time but it's a fold for me against a cbet OTF unless I got 2pair or above (and excluding trips with 2 aces on the board)

I am not a bot so I do from time to time call in spots that I’m not suppose to. 😝 the App is GTO preflop.

 

[GERSteven]

I've lost so many times against supposedly weaker aces that it's hard for me to make a general decision. I've also folded weak aces and the flop came down to 3 aces. I generally play suited aces whenever someone doesn't go all-in. I also play weak aces, but it depends on the situation. There are also just too many players who think they have to donk when they have an ace and are then rewarded.

 

[kitchy65]

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

Ok...yes, you should defend your BB with Ax

You play the ACE on the flop exactly as you would if you had opened with AK.

If you are frightened then check/call on every street and hope his 22 doesn't hit a set.

 

[eetenor]

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

We can play Ax vs EP opens but stack depth matters- 100bb GTO we call AT0ff+ all suited
as 40bb we are A7+ A4-5 at 25 bb we are playing them all- shoving A5s and raising to fold A5off

The issue with playing AX GTO ranges is we have to be very good post flop - As you are unsure of post flop play it would be best to limit to 100bb GTO strat at all stack depths.

When we do play Ax hands (GTO 100bb range) our preplan is to win a small pot when we hit top pair-therefore we are pot controlling most often
That means we do not lead flop and as all of our low AX will now be suited we can pick up equity on turn cards that give us river flush draws so that we can continue to call bets-

As we are pot controlling with our AX we are only looking to get value from it on 2 streets-
If our V bets flop we call- we check turn they check we can then small bet for value on river
If V checks flop we lead turn and river--- board dependent of course

We can also call flop bluff catch river etc- the key to remember is pot control 2 streets value only when we hold one pair

There is an exploit element to Axxx turns as well standard V expect you to have an ace when you continue board dependent so if they take a strong action on turn and we did not improve we can often just fold-

"Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker"-----The one card fish expect you to have is an ACE if they raise your lead insta fold ---but don't lead check call one---often fun players will bet turn large with an AX hand and we can fold

 

[Recreationalplayer]

I play all suited Aces and AJ+offsuit by calling.

Playing all unsuited Aces oop is a losing strategy in long run as we are dominated by strong kicker of UTG players.

 

[Dmitriy_rus7]

Hi guys,

recently I ran into the situation a few times that I have a weak unsuited Ace in BB and face a raise from early position. Do you call here?

It's very likely that my kicker is worse in case they have an Ace and their range is narrow, so contains many Ax hands.

My question is would you fold preflop? And if not, how to play if you hit the Ace on flop?

I recently played two Ax hands in BB against EP and did the following:

1. I donk bet 1/3 of pot and get raised. Since it was a fish, I jammed but he had an Ace indeed and a better kicker, as expected.
2. I checked and faced a (c-)bet, so I raised to pot to verify if I face an Ace again. Since he re-raised again, so I folded this time.

So my question:
Is it even worth playing weak Aces against EP?

yes, I fold A2, A3 and so on very often. I also always assume that there is someone at the table who has an A and a kicker higher than mine. A with a small kicker is tempting but dangerous😂

but, yesterday I was knocked out to ACR, I had AK in my hands, the guy had A9 and of course he got 9😅😂

 

[takinitSLEAZEE]

Yeah, weak aces can be the worst hands to call with in the blinds, because when you do, you're usually behind. Now if you're priced in or are getting some decent pot-odds they can actually pay-off, especially w/3-4 limpers. An ace on the flop is usually a good one for a weak ace in the blind in this situation since most limpers are coming in w/suited connectors and maybe low pairs.
I'm always leery of players coming in w/a min-raise from early-pos since they're usually trying to get someone to raise so they can 3-bet w/their nice over pair or AK/AQ. There's no shame in folding a weak hand and waiting for a better spot to come along.

 

[steve01991]

usually, i fold A rag to a raise, odds are against you.

 

[Gh0stL]

Hi, I think is depends how the player behave, maybe he is bluffing, or not, but that will depend of the information about the villain, the action usually is be aggressive.

 

[dakosta666]

I think nobody can answer you so non specific question . What will be better for you , not for Negreanu or Malinowski . So as for me the best way is to look at your own hand history in this position with aces in HM , evaluate results , statustics etc. and make a decision purely on math

 

[Marshmalo1994]

I hate this situation, I'm usually not sure how to play, for example, ATo from the button against an early position raise.
Sometimes I fold it the villain has a small pfr range, other times I just call and regret immediately 😅