AA preflop

How would you play AA preflop in this situation?

You sit at a low to mid cash game table. Blinds ranging from .05/.10 to .25/.50. You are seated and notice that the button is a few hands away, so you opt to post the BB.

You get dealt AA the very first hand and its folded to you.

What do you do?

Keep in mind it is a cash game and you are trying to get paid for a big hand.

Also, the table is pretty tight, but big pots are built when there are big hands involved.

You really gotta raise it here. Limping leaves you with the distinct possibility of bringing the pot 4 way at the least. Big pots being built post flop will usually mean that you single pair is no good, and unless you have the disipline to be able to lay down your overpair against some action, with will inevitibly happen against tight players pot buiding then your dust.

Raise it up 4xBB, try to isolate one player, and take the hand from there. If your looking to play for implied odds here, and bring it up multiway, then your better off playing a mid/low pair, at least youll know with a good degree of certainty when your beat.

Oh yea, dont post your blinds out of turn.

hey tb im drunk. wanna take a few shots?

I post cuz i cant wait to get into the action...all those nickels and dimes flying around. I can barely contain myself.

I usually do raise the standard 4x the BB. I been in 2 situations where I get dealt AA, once with KK, and a few other times with 88-QQ.

88-QQ, I definatly raise; i dont want to see overs. I'd rather take the pot down early or isolate, but with big hands like AA or KK, especially the first hand dealt...is that any reason to play differently?

Take the same situation, but you've been playing tight-aggressive for 2 hours and you get AA. Then yes I would raise them.

The reason I ask is because everyone knows you're new to table and here you come with a raise on your first hand. You either A) have a big hand or B) you want to induce action. In the situations where I had AA or KK, i raised and i picked up the blinds, then it was playing (mostly folding) the rest of the time. Picking up some small pots here and there, but nothing big. Im always left wondering if I shouldve played the AA differently.

Nah, im at work, Ill leave you alone Joose

Philthy, at the smaller limits, you should be playing AA/KK straight up for value. IF your UTG and almost every pot is raised, then you can limp in order to put in your re-raise, but in LP limping just encourages more limping, if the CO and button also limp, then your also out of position for the rest of the hand, which is a huge consideration to factor in. Dont beat yourself up about it, I managed to get 99 allin preflop with AA a few night ago.

I raise and mutter something about how I have to protect my blind. At low limits people will actually fall for it.

I'm more inclined to raise here than at most other times even, because we can take advantage of the fact that nobody knows anything about us. Limping leaves us open to getting involved in sprawling multiway pots against (and this is the flipside to the above) people who we know nothing about, and limp-reraising is too blatant a show of strength.

Raise, build a pot, try and get 2-3 handed and play from there. If you don't get called, or if you get suckjed out on for a huge pot, well, c'est la vie.

i would raise
i hate pocket aces always seem to get beet by tons of bad hands all the time but some times its always nice to show you got trip aces or just show you got pocket aces

Raise and post something about being pot committed.

Raise and type "I'M GLAD I GOT ACES ON THE FIRST HAND"

LOL.

Doyle Brunson said that with pocket Aces you either win a small pot or lose a big one. So put in your raise, hope for one caller and be happy with the free blinds if you don't get one.

You have to raise here, if not your giving the other BB a chance to hit something on the flop, it has happened to me time and time again, just the other night I didn't raise my PP of 6s and jusst called and let BB in with 37os and the flo came up 256 rainbow.
It was a cash game and hit my BR big, and because of that I have been raising all PP when in LP.
IMO raise to take the sht off the table.

Absolutely could not agree with this more.

I know to raise AA preflop.

The main question is: How does it change when the first hand you are dealt is AA? You dont want to lose, but at the same time you want to get paid off.

Or does anything change at all?

you could raise like they said (4x bb) especially if there were no callers in front of you and play it like a regular hand just don't get too attached. In this situation if there are callers in front of me I like to over raise the pot (10-25x bb). This makes it look like I'm trying to display the aggressive image and it makes people question if I am just raising absurd because I'm new to the table and I can just to steal the blinds or do I really have a hand

This does a couple things for me. For the most part is that I get to take down the blinds without real resistance and Im somewhat satisfied by that with aces first hand if i haven't watched the competition at least one round before hand, because it would be hard to know when Im beat or whether they are betting one pair. If someone actually calls the overbet than I'm gonna bet aggressively, because for the most part that means they have a pair or aj or above and I'll take my chances on that person hitting for there set if they wanna to call a huge preflop raise first hand. So if you do get callers it'll only be one and your guaranteed a huge hand preflop, which is what you want.

That only applies if there were callers in front of you especially a good amount, with no callers and the action is on you just make a typical raise

For the most part, first hand with aces I want to minimize all risk if I haven't seen the table play so I'll overraise just to take down the blinds and if someone calls they're dominated regardless its a win win situation, the kicker is I don't expect to get called, so when I do I got more than what I wanted. Only on the first hand would I raise like this though

noticing the blind structure, I would have to say that a 3-4xBB raise is sufficient enough to chase the sht out but small enough to ensure that your almost guaranteed at least one caller

Hi. I agree with Shinedown. You must raise. AA is a very tricky hand.

I read only the first sentence. How would you play AA preflop in this situation?

I have been here long enough to believe the majority of the players will suggest that the more you can get in the middle here, the better. Many will probably tell you to shove it.

My only alteration would be to try to isolate out some of the weaklings first. The standard raise doesn't seem to do it lately, so maybe a 4x or 5x raise will get all but the truely interested to fold.

All In up front tends to be seen as a gamble, and many will join often just for the thrill of it. However, those same folk will often respect a healthy raise that suggests you really do have something. Not always, but often.

With AA I don't like lots of folks in the pot, but I would rather see some action than no action at all.

Early tourneys, well, seems one has little choice, who among us will fold AA late position after 4 or 5 all ins up front. One of these days, I keep telling myself, I will fold AA in that situation. But then someone will tell me to go shoot myself. Personally, in a multiway pot, I feel better about joining the all-in fest with QJ suited, or 89 suited than with AA.

So, boil my worthless opinions down to;

-Raise bigger to try to isolate
-Raise regardless on the flop
-Aim at getting all your chips into the middle pre turn.

On rare occasions it may be necessary to not raise the flop, like say the flop is KKQ or some such. Perhaps a flushed flop might set off alarm bells.

Those who know my replies know that I'm very read-dependent, so...
I assume you have been watching or datamining this table for a bit since you read this table as "tight". However, the "big pots are built..." statement can be true at ANY type of table.

Seems like a contradiction. I would interpret "flying around" as being a loose table.

At any rate, having it folded around to me would prompt me to put in a standard 3xBB raise. Not only would this prevent limpers and still be inviting to a caller or 2, but it could seem like a "move" from "off the street". Meaning an attempt to steal the blinds by capitalizing on the lack of a read.

Like has been said: You want 1 or 2 callers, but I'd never limp with Aces in this case.

AA in the Poc spells danger danger who else has a pair ? who is suited lots of hands BEAT AA i am waitn on the flop then bait them with a CK

"DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!! You have the best hand in poker pre-flop! DANGER!!"

lol MrS


I don't see why this has gone into so much depth; it's AA. Raise it. Standard raise is 3-5BBs. Observe your table before you sit down, see what bet sizes are being called or folded, then bet the biggest amount you know will get called.

No need to get tricky or overly aggressive, just raise it

basicly at this levels the only people who are calling you will be the ones with overs.

with AA on the first hand I raise 3-4X the BB.
most cash games i played i post the BB out of turn because i want to start right away. I always raise to protect my blinds and ALWAYS i have 1 to 3 people call.
Players DO NOT want to believe you caught something on your first hand so they call to see a flop.
disclaimer
this observation is based on my personal experience and should not be considered set in stone.

Thats an easy one for me,,,, raise 3xbb. I consistantly bet 3xbb anytime I get involved in a pot. So my routine 3xbb bet does 2 things here. It
masks my killer AA, and hopefully at the same time scares off the Donk with suited conn's or a low pair. Works pretty well, most of the time. Remember, this IS poker.

quint