[Ed Miller]

explain raising this flop, especially when I'm bet into by a pre-flop raiser and I don't like my kicker?

Ok. Here's the point. You should often avoid "easily dominated" hands before the flop, especially against a raiser. You are trying to avoid trouble, making a cautious fold WHEN THE POT IS STILL SMALL.

Once you decide to see the flop (which you DEFINITELY should with your A8s in this hand), you simply cannot play in fear of the worst. If you flop top pair, you still have a potentially dominated hand, but now THE POT IS BIG! There is nothing you can do about it at this point, you just have to hope your hand is best and protect your share of the pot by raising out opponents with weak draws.

The size of the pot dictates how you play your hand. When the pot is small, making cautious folds is often correct. When the pot is large (which it is once it is raised preflop in this case), you MUST PROTECT YOUR HAND... you have to gamble. You have too much to lose if you play cautiously.

BTW, folding in this situation is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. It is an enormous error. I'm glad you fixed that leak. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] But now you have to start playing more aggressively.