A♦9♣ HJ vs CO, preflop, 80 bb
The spot
- You: HJ
- Opponent: CO
- Your hand: A♦9♣
- Board: preflop, no board yet
- Effective stack: 80 bb
- Pot: 6.5 bb
Folded to hero preflop in 6‑max.
What is the strongest default preflop action?
See the answer
Best play: Fold
Why
Hero holds A9o (A♦9♣) in the HJ and it folds to hero, so this is a first-in open spot. A9o sits inside a standard HJ opening range (which extends to roughly A8o-A9o): it has an ace blocker, makes top pair with a decent kicker, and the HJ is wide enough to open it, so folding is too tight and the given fold is questionable.
Key idea
From the HJ, offsuit aces around A8o-A9o are typically open-raises, not folds; only the weaker offsuit aces (A2o-A7o) start dropping out of the range.
Common mistake
Over-folding offsuit broadway aces from the HJ and surrendering profitable first-in opens that the position width supports.