Hey guys was running through some hands and I saw this flop spot that I thought was pretty interesting.

So were playing 6 max and were in the BB and villain is in the cut off. Lets assume were 100 BB effective and then 200BB effective. Lets assume they are an unknown. Villain opens 4x folds to hero in the BB. We look at a wheel ace what's our play? Suited we call. Not raising an unknown there I don't think. Do we still call our non suited variants?

On a flop like AA2r-5 what's our best line we should take?

If we lead we're going to get called by an ace and probably raised by the stronger aces. This is nice when we flop the boat but I think we can probably check to villain in that spot and let him bluff into us. I think if we lead and we get raised it puts us in a pretty tough spot when we don't have the boat. Especially because villain will likely bet into us again on the turn. Would the play then be to fold to the flop raise? If we check and villain bets do we always just call? Is our hand to strong to turn into a bluff? If not should we only be doing this with a backdoor flush draw and then giving up on a brick flush draw turn? Against an unknown should we assume they wouldn't fold to a raise when they have an ace and if so do we just kind of check call it down? We can never just fold to one bet here.

Vs even 3x you should be folding offsuit small aces, iirc start calling A8o vs btn 3x, CO not sure

Versus a 4x probably calling only ATo and better, and even that is marginal.

I honestly think I would rather defend a wheel ace than A8o but yeah I could get behind that.

What are you doing against a standard open size? lets say we face a 2.5 or a 3x open. do you still advocate that tight of a calling range?

Let me try to explain it another way. It's very rare the times you will flop a straight with a wheel ace. The other problem is you won't be able to realize your equity.

You defend A2o vs a 3bb raise. Flop is 34T, you check since you're OOP, opponent bets you call. Turn is a K, opponent bets, you cannot call again profitably.

The reason why it's better to defend A8, A9 etc is because when you do flop an 8 or 9 it can withhold more heat against bets since it's going to be top or middle pair a lot. When you flop a pair with a wheel ace most of the time it's going to be bottom pair.

Don't over estimate off suit wheel aces, in the grand scheme of things calling OOP with them is going to be unprofitable and a losing strategy in the long term.

Vs 2.5x probably defending A8o and higher as well as A5o. Vs a 3x probably A9o and better, but once again A9o would be a pretty marginal defend. This is all dependent on the player raising as well. Against better regs I would defend tighter and against fish I'd defend wider.

If we are up against a villain with a reasonable Fold-to-3bet%, shouldn't we have suited wheel aces in our 4-bet bluffing range?

I prefer to call them, we have only a limited amout of bluffs to choose from and still remain balanced, and I think its better to 3bet hands that are borderline calls. Axs are just to strong to 3betbluff IMO, when youre closing the action calling with Axs is just very +EV. Also, we are concerned with boardcoverage, we are already very strong on Axx boards so I prefer hands that connect with lower boards. I'd start to throw in some 3bets when deep.

Sorry I missread, I thought you asked if we should 3bet them. Yes they do make good 4betbluffs since they have good blockers and playability. But we are looking for reasonable Fold-to-4bet% and not Fold-to-3bet%

If he is folding a lot to 3bets that implies that his 4betrange is stronger