OK. I had A8s and I thought it was sort of borderline so I appreciate the sanity check.

Borderline premium?

LOL I lost almost three racks last night and was not playing my A game so it was sort of hard to tell what was and wasn't a premium hand.

4/8 standard game 8 handed

bad player limps in EP, I am in HJ with JTo. I fold
2 limps to me in HJ with A9o. I fold
1 bad player limps to me in HJ with A7o. I fold.

no brainer folds

JTo is the easiest fold of this set. The A7 is the next one up for me. If the limper is the type who is limping better aces or 88+ we just fold. But if the limper basically always has something worse than you, you can go ahead and raise. Same with the A9, this is a pretty straightforward raise versus weak ranges IMO, but against strong limping ranges (which can be common at low stakes) the risk of being dominated isn’t worth it.

You don’t need to cbet every flop when you miss.

A7o is complete trash in any position, A9o not much better. From the CO I’m definitely playing JTo probably for a raise depending on game dynamics. So I’d be tempted from the HJ depending on just how bad others are.

I agree with no brainer fold for all, but if I’m playing c game I probably trick myself into thinking A9o is not so bad from there

Ha thats where I was in game. Card dead and looking to play hands, they all were looking good but I folded.

I'm also more likely to play the JTo here, especially if I think a raise will narrow the field to 2 or 3 and sometimes I will be able to win without the best hand. Definitely a high variance / low margin play though. In a high rake game I'm folding all of them.

Make the hands suited and I'm raising all three, even if the rake is significant.

4/8 8 handed passive game

MP and BTN limp to me in SB with A2o. I call.

I agree 100%. Also worth noting that raising after 2+ limpers is much, much different than isolating one limper. A9o is a fine hand to isolate one limper with but it’s trash against multiple limpers.

👍

Unless the limpers are limping with AT+ it's nearly impossible to construct realistic limping ranges where a hand like A9 is not a significant equity favorite against the limpers and the remaining field. I of course agree that playing a multiway pot with A9o is not necessarily easy, but it's also not that hard, and the most likely outcome is that we are in position against weak ranges and we can check a lot of flops. I recognize that in small stakes games people can limp pretty strong ranges in which case I absolutely agree hands like A9o are just a pass. But there are a good number of players whose limp is always a rather weak, decapitated range, and whether there's one of them or two of them, it seems criminal to me to not press an equity advantage with a hand that objectively is not that hard to play. I'd happily pass up on a very small equity advantage in a spot like this, but you could be looking at an equity distribution that's like 38/27/27 between you and two weak limpers.

8/16 game tighter than usual 8 handed.

Looser TAG opens UTG, folds to TAG in the CO who 3!, folds to me in the BB with 88. I fold.

In theory, folding is wrong, but it's better than playing the hand and being lost. This is going to be a tough hand to play OOP against two strong ranges and if you're still getting your sea legs post-flop, folding is just fine. You're giving up some prelfop EV but that may be outweighed by what you might lose post if you're not navigating well.

Yeah, ranges are just too strong at this level to defend especially OOP. And you’re not closing the action. With one more player in the pot you’re getting the odds to set mine but not here.

Let’s say it’s most likely capped it’s 3 to win 9 so you need 25% equity to be profitable. If it’s not capped you need 22%.

I calculated 99+, ATs+, AQo+, KQs, QJs for V1, and TT+, AQs+, AKo for V2. With those ranges you have about 23.5% equity. So on average you probably will have right around the equity needed to continue, but you are going to be stuck in the middle of some really strong ranges, and you’re not going to be able to realize all that equity regardless.

I don’t think it’s a mistake to call at all but you probably have to fold on most flops unless you improve, which sucks.

I would only play here if both villains are bad in known ways.

You guys are crazy and you would have to pry this one out of my cold dead hands.

I landed on call but be cautious post-flop.

In my opinion it’s an easy fold at 4/8, tough fold at 8/16, and easy call/maybe cap? at 20/40+.

Can we be crazy and still be right?

Even when it's a lower limit game specified as tighter than usual, and you don't know anything else about the players?