[electrical]

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BTW 885 is a 60/40 favorite over a random A upcard. (Though of course the A should not necessarily be raising 100%).

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If you think he has a "random" quality hand and is on a pure steal 85+ percent of the time, then you're even money and it doesn't matter if you play or not. I don't think that's the case with most opponents. I know it isn't the case with me. I am doing something other than stealing 15+ percent of the time, that's for sure. And if it is true that we're sacrificing profit, it's a tiny marginal profit from the equity in the ante pool. Subtract the rake and there's even less reason to fight over small potatoes.

[edit: after typing this, I'm not sure it makes sense. 0.60 * 0.85 = 0.51 I'm going to leave it for the purposes of discussion, but I will probably post a more reasoned argument when I have time to think about it more.]

Folding Third also avoids the general bad taste marginal hands leave you with on later streets -- you can never be certain you're ahead, so you can never extract full value from them (who wants to play for a cap with eights-and-fives?), and it's ridiculously easy to get run down if you are momentarily ahead.

You have been dealt a crappy hand, and it's okay to fold a crappy hand for free, especially when so many better opportunities present themselves.

If you're playing three-handed, that's a different story.