[aejones]

I love the comment about not waiting for a huge hand here; it's very true but I think a lot of high stakes players even miss that point.

If his range of hands is something like: all pockets, all aces, and most face cards (which I'm assuming it is), I would say that the problem with calling with A6 is that you are either a slight favorite or a pretty big dog. Really, your marginal advantage is that you can beat KQ, QJish hands barely, only dominate smaller aces, and are a pretty big dog against bigger aces and pocket pairs between 7s and Ks.

That said, I think A8 is the borderline hand. As said in another post on this thread, call with A9 and better and (I would say) 66 or better. In this case, you are going to be racing a lot of times; however, I think that's not always a bad thing given that A.) you can probably afford it in your roll better than he can and B.) you can always reload and it sounds like you are a more mature/ non-tiltish player. I call with A9, sometimes A8, always 66, sometimes 55, and I establish an image that I am not only aggressive, but also loose, and that if he is going to put in a ridiculous raise, I'm going to gamble with him a fair share of the time.