Quote Originally Posted by potdragn
Quote Originally Posted by underminedsk

Fold A8o preflop, ESPECIALLY TO A $5 raise. This is definatly setting you up for a huge loss. Even if you hit an A, you have no idea if your kicked.

So you are discounting reads? What if someone is just raising random amounts every hand? I wait for AA or KK? That sounds a little silly to me. Let me stress, im not calling down every 5 dollar raise I see with A9s, except maybe against this guy.
There is no read that makes this play profitable. You have A8 not A9. Even if villain raises every A the same (A2-AA) you are still exactly at the break even point. There are exactly 6 bigger Aces and 6 smaller Aces than you.

Now thats looking on the brightside, where hitting the A will make you breakeven due to your kicker.

On the more realistic side is the situation where no nutter is going to loose enough with A2 when he hits his A, to make up for the times you hit yours against the guy with AA.

On top of that you have to consider the slight possibility that he will raise more often with AA (and take it further) than he will with A8.

It doesnt matter what read you have, if you go into a hand with a hand that is, at absolute best in the middle of his range, and with very few drawing prospects, then you will lose money.
Try and be a little more patience. If he is raising any A then come in with ATs and above. At least then you have some margin for error. Better would be to wait for AJ-AK, TT+ (or lower for sets), and SCs. That way he will be the one paying you in most of the pots where you go to showdown with him.