I never open-limp with anything - I don't even call limps that often. If you've got a hand that's good enough to play, it's good enough to raise, and this gives less info to the other players at the table.
This means that you certainly don't want to ever limp with AA, for two reasons -
- You don't need to worry about mixing up your open-limping range
- If you've been playing against the same oppo for a while and then they see you open-limp for the first time, you might set off alarm bells.
[BTW, does anyone know of trackers that will give ranges for open-limps, min-raises, etc? IMO this would be just about the most useful info to have. Similarly, whether AA tends to raise more than other starting hands]
I know it's frustrating to just pick up the blinds when you have the best starting hand, but bear in mind that -
- It's better to pick up the blinds than to get stacked
- Giving anyone a free flop is too risky, especially when you have 100 blinds each, even 92o in the big blind can make two-pair and you'll have no way to know where you are.
- If they are letting you take the blinds down a lot when you have AA, then they'll be letting you take them with other hands too. Maybe next time you raise 55 or 87s you'll take the blinds down as well, which will be a rather more pleasant result.
BTW, I disagree with
Generally in an unraised or once raised pot preflop you do not want to be going broke with AA unimproved.
I'd say that I'd be prepared to stack myself on AA a fair proportion of the time. This could be for a number of reasons -
- My games may be weaker than Zach's.
- My game may be weaker than Zach's
- My post-flop style is high risk. Some bet for information, trying to get the other guy to fold hands weaker than theirs and to keep playing hands stronger than theirs so they know where they are. I tend to do the opposite - I try to give my oppo some rope to hang themselves with and to not tell them when they are beaten. This means I have to then call when they still think they have the best hand or when they think they can bluff me off my hand!
BTW, if I decide to raise, I tend to raise to 3.5xBB no matter what my hand, for fear that it will be noticed if I bet differently with stronger hands. It's possible I'm being paranoid.