Just sat down at the table on Friday night and wanted to test waters a bit in EP. Normally I wouldn't play this in EP, but due to time constraints on session felt like risking a little bit more.

Hero (buy in $150)
Early 20s, asian male. Hero has virtually no read on the table since this is his first hand.

Villain (~$350)
Mid 20s, white male with headphones in.

Preflop
Hero has A8 clubs in EP and does a raise to $6. Six callers from ep, mp, and lp.

Flop ($36)
As 8h 9h

1. Hero bets out $22.
2. Villain in ep re-raises to $65.
3. Everyone else folds.

4. Hero?

Fold pre from ep. Only play high io hands when eff stacks are deeper. As played, shove. You have top&bottom and started the hand with 75bb.

Thanks for the input about the hand. As said, I normally don't play A8s in ep.

You shouldn't be in hand to begin with. With an SPR just over 4 and no read on villain at all, I'm going with two pair here. Villain can easily have a big AX or a draw in addition to hands that beat you. I would just shove over the raise on the flop.

Thanks for the input. I acknowledged that I shouldn't be playing A8s in Ep. As for the hand, why shove over the top if you could be beat?

Because there are a lot of hands that DON'T beat you. You likely have the best hand on the flop and you're hand is unlikely to improve. If you just call there are a lot of turn cards that you wouldn't like to see. Get it all in now. If you're beat then that's just bad luck.

Thanks everyone.

RESULTS:
cont.
4. Hero shoves all in, to get called by 89clubs and takes down the pot. Double up

Just wanted to confirm that I played the hand right, and to see if there were any alternatives to playing it. Thanks everyone.

If you call you will have less then a pot sized bet left. You can't flat call and then fold the turn because hands that are behind are still going to shove turn and you don't know which cards beat you. Villain could be on a flush draw, straight draw, hit a better two pair, but could also hit a worse two pair, a big ace, semi-bluffing or something else you beat.

There are two secondary factors. First, you hand is so unlikely it's pretty disguised. A villain with a big ace is likely to think they are ahead. So there are more worse hands that can be raising for value. Second, if villain is drawing then you want to charge them as much as possible. A nut flush isn't going away, but there is nothing you can do about that. You can charge the straights and worse flush draws.

Thank you for the detailed response

You didn't play the hand right. You got lucky. It is a big difference.

You needed to fold pf. Even worse, the reason you played it was that you didn't have time to play a long session. It is all just one big session. Do not alter your play because of how much time you have left playing.

Since you decided to play the hand, having it go 6 ways is a disaster. You need to raise much more. The size of your bet is a tell that you have a weak starting hand.

As for the hand, it plays itself. The villain could easily had top two pairs or a set. You'd have to play it the same way. If you had AK or AQ, you'd play it the same way.

Lol, I acknowledged that you shouldn't play A8s in ep. It's a bad starting hand in that position. However, given the circumstances I wanted only an analyses on the hand that is in play. Sometimes people play with bad cards in starting positions and it's useful to have these hands analyzed as well.

As for your advice, it has already been said by others. Which you have seen post because you quoted my last reply at the bottom of the page. So, really, all you came in here to say was how "bad" I played the hand. Which I already acknowledged. Prick.

I don't think that he meant it to be mean to you. People will reiterate points because they're crucial to improving your live game and want to drill it home. Everyone posting here is trying to help each other improve their game and therefore winrate.

However, (as played). The flop bet from you (the sizing, especially) indicates that you should be willing to shove on any raise and on almost any turn (barring flushes). We can open pre with this hand infrequently from EP in order to slightly widen our EP raising range in order to get more play on hands such as JJ+ as we raise them pre. However, we need to decide what our EP raise (in dollar amount) is, and attempt to standardize that, in order not to give a bet sizing tell indicating strong v weak hands in EP (crucial because we have to act OOP almost every time we see a flop).

Pretty much the key difference.

As usual you summarized the situation perfectly. Even if the OP doesn't care about improving their poker know that there's lots of other people who read these threads and learn from your posts.

Thanks!!!

p.s. If a Villain is continuing to a 3-bet with this range A9, A8, 76s, 88, 99 then we're usually behind on the flop. That's why the Hero who so badly misplayed his hand just got lucky by finding himself against the worse possible hand.