[naphand]

As you asked me to respond and I have cooked for the day...

Someone else posted about not playing A8o after a limper in CO and I tend to agree, esp. with the LAG behind you. You want this HU and you want position, as you are unlikely to get either dump it.

The thought that is going round my head is why on earth you feel you need to play these hands in $0.5/$1 games? HU this hands has merit, but not 3-way OOP.

If the games are loose then play more sooteds as you will make some tasty pots with 2-pair or draws as typical donkey will never fold his overcards. Hands like QTo etc. are also profitable for an overlimp as the kicker is enough most of the time if you catch TP, and 2ndP is good enough times too.

A8o is definitely borderline to -EV here; pairing your kicker will still lose a lot of the time which makes this a fold for me.

Just be patient and play the ABC hands, instead of playing questionable hands, play solid and play more tables. It is just too easy to (1) get too clever with players who are actually remarkably stupid and (2) start to believe that thay are so bad that non-profitable hands/positions start to be profitable. They don't.

Back to basics: in loose games play more drawing hands, in aggro games drop the hands that need a cheap flop. Loose-aggro games playing mediocre non-sooteds multi-way is a good way to lower your WR.

OK, getting past the Flop (by the way PF is not a disaster, just cannot see why you feel you need to play it here, when you have many other hands you can play that are much easier post-flop).

The Flop is exactly the kind of situation that makes A8o a loser: difficult to fold but likely you are going to lose, you can make 2-pair of trips and still lose a big pot to draws. Very hard to judge what is going on, and easy to be bluffed off and start to micro-tilt.

LAG has cold-called your PFR, you are donked into and there are all sorts of draws available. Not only is it quite likely someone has a draw but with 2 playing-zone cards (K and 9) you are going to be behind already a lot. If you are not behind you really need to improve as plenty more cards can hurt you by making 2-pair or pair-plus draw. At least you have the soot-Ace making your 2-pair outs valid (no flush and no re-draws) but any Q/J/T or even a 7 almost certainly means you have a re-draw against you or drawing dead.

If 37-hand LAG (tell me this is a joke) has any part of this he wont fold. In fact, if he holds a hand like QT/JT he can very correctly call your 2 bets. If he has an ISD unless it is exactly 56 he can still call your raise, due to the overcard outs (T6 being marginal). While he does not know you only have an 8, he will still play correctly by calling; your raise achieves nowt. If his cold-call PF was total garbage you want him to call the Flop for 1 bet as he is a huge dog, esp. with a dead-backdoor flush.

Mr Magoo (MP) has a draw at least, but you really are fumbling in the dark. You do not say what your read is based on or how many hands you have played.

Ugly spot. I may even just fold the flop depending on how I feel the game is going. With so many possible outs against you, at least try to see the Turn cheap and, with a safe card, raise for a free showdown (and pray LAG folds or has folded). You may get checked-to on the Turn; LAG has position on you and you do not want Mr Magoo to draw free. See how bad it looks?