Whats the correct raise amount here?

Okay here`s the situation taken straight from Harrah`s in AC the other night. I`m at a 1/2NL FR with a full $300 stack. Table is very competetive with only one weak player, two seats to my left and one absent player with a big stack ($600) directly to my left. I`ve taken a few pots and have a solid table image. I`m up around $60 when the absent player returns and immediately raises every single pot pre-flop for almost two turns. His raises are in the 4x to 6x range, mostly 4x, with much success. Everyone tightens up with maybe one player playing back with occasional showdown. Which leads me to this hand... I`m in the BB and get pocket Aces. Guy on my left (first to act) does his usual raise to $8 and 4 more people call him including the weak guy directly to his left, a mid position, the button and the SB. Action is to me.......there`s already $42 in the pot. what is the correct raise amount for pocket Aces in this situation?? Everyone in the hand has a very good stack with the exception of the mid position guy who is around $100.

I would judge the raise amount by what flopped. If nothing on the flop doubled up then i know i have a good chance of taking down the pot and I would want one of the aggressive players to bet and then I would re-raise.

Considering its a live game, ~$80. A potsized raise is $58. So just pump it to 80, shove any flop.

There is no way you can not raise here preflop. Your answer indicates a smooth call pre and play based on the flop. There is absolutely no way you can let all of these players see the flop. My gut was $60. I dont hate the $80 either.

The bigger question here is why are you playing a 1/2$ live game with only one weak player?
Surely you could find a better table/game at the lowest live stakes.

But yeah i agree with C9 here. make them pay and 80$ sounds like a nice round number

I was at the table for only 40 Min or so at this time. The one guy was an obvious weaky but everyone else seemed pretty solid, at least ABC poker-wise. Maybe it had something to do with it being a Monday night, not the usual fish-fry on the weekends in AC. I had just moved from a bizarre raise-fest table with two guys who had it out for each other, so this table was fine till the agressive guy came back to his stack. My real concern here was the choice of letting too many people see the flop or being happy with taking the blinds or maybe chasing away another big pair and getting a big payoff.

Half your stack, which probably gets you one caller. Then push unless you get 3 of the same suit on the flop.

Look at it in terms of percentage of your stack, if you push, you are probably only going to get called by kk or qq. If everyone folds you win a 42 dollar pot, a 14% increase to your stack. If the original raiser calls a pot size raise, that could give other players odds to try to hit a huge flop. I say take the 14% increase and move on.

Yeah I think bumping it to $60 is the right move. I think you get 1 or maybe 2 callers. Then just play some poker at the flop!

Anywhere in the range mentioned should get the job done, just enough to get lingering mediocre hands out of the way

pot sized raise

The minimum bet here should be the pot but I would go to $80 and see what happens. One thing is for sure nobody has a better hand and you are looking to get a head to head situation with one other. I assume you raised and got at least one caller. What happened next?

I know you`re not supposed to post results, as Chuck T says,"results don`t matter, what matters is if you made the correct play". I am way too results oriented myself, but since a few have asked I shall tell you how it played out. (My apologies if I`m doing the wrong thing by doing so.) I thought for a minute and came to the conclusion that I had to raise big since multiple callers (5) would bury my aces for sure. I grabbed my green chips and tossed out four and said Raise to $100. To which the reply was fold, fold, fold, fold, fold. Guess I panicked and overdid it but taking the $42 was a nice consolation.I`m trying to learn to handle the constant agressive bettor, but i know I`ve got alot to learn. Thanks to everyone for the great replies, this site rocks!

I think $80 is the right amount for this situation. You have to bet more than the pot here, and I don't feel like $60 is high enough to get the donks out.

Honestly, that's fine. You picked up a nice pot without even having to see a flop. You did make a bit of an overbet, but you still did fine. Also, you learn from that that you can get limpers out with big raises, meaning you can steal some money later on by making a similar raise with a weaker hand.

Hmm, well there are plenty of people saying it, but I feel a nice $80 bet would have worked quite well in getting a lot of people out and maybe bringing one caller. As you are the BB, seen as a respected card player by the rest of the mob, and knowing that the guy next to has already drawn people in looking for his blood, I think a raise of three of those shiny green chips ($75) would have been a bit better. There is almost a mental warning flair that goes up when that third digit gets involved (the whole 99 is marketed to be a lot cheaper than 100) so I think a hefty raise of less than $100 would have been a good play.

I agree, I'm pretty new too and I've enjoyed it so far.

i definately say less than 50$ so that you can get the mp shortstack shove allin and if anyone else calls just shove preflop.