AA preflop

i think we have all been in the AA preflop situation and how to play them

I personally have mixed feelings on it and it depends on how im runnin if i go allin preflop to aviod as many suckouts as possible

how do yog uys play this?

Hey Bazel. I like to see how people are playing on the table. I hate to get sucked out on AA so I personally like to get into heads up situations. I would rather win a couple blinds if I don't get an action rather than lose half my stack. I've also hit a lot of times with suited connectors against AA, so the hand can be vulnerable after a drawing type of flop. Don't quote me on this but I've heard that 8 10 is the best hand statistically to beat AA's.

I play them as fast as I can preflop, ideally getting all in. As that is not usually the case, do your best to enact a strategy where you are taking a flop with as few players as possible. I stated in another thread that Brunson's Super System II has an excellent treatment of how to play AA, KK, and QQ. Do yourself a favor and either pick up a copy, or grab a cup of joe at Borders and spend some time perusing those sections. You won't be sorry.

i hate slow playing AA wouldnt reccomend it atall. either reraise all in or i large raise for heads up.

I hate AA and love AA preflop sometimes for some reason my AA always get out flopped and I end up going all in and Losing to a pocket pair that hit on the flop. But sometimes it feels good to have AA preflop. I find that the best pocket pair to have is KK because i don't know it's more lucky for me to have KK than AA. I know that is stupid to say but thats just me lol.

I tend to raise the pot to get down to maybe 1-2 callers. Then I just hope for the best low rainbow cards possible. You could take it all in but usually in my ase I get taken down by the guy with 72o who calls me

Strong Dollar1 said:

Alway raise, and if your table is very loose push an all in to get one donk to make a wrong call.

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Advice to always do one thing or another when dealing with poker is usually inaccurate. I agree that you should raise the overwhelming majority of the time when you have AA, but you can't ALWAYS raise. You have to just limp or call with them OCCASIONALLY just so you don't become predictable. It goes something like this: If you ALWAYS raise when you have AA, players might not necessarily know when you have AA, since in theory, you are raising other hands too. But when you don't raise, they will know when you DON'T have AA.

Do you see why?

personally... if i had aces pre flop.. i would want 2 people to play at most. once you get a 3rd person your aces could easily get busted... the problem with playing it too aggresively is that you dont get action you wanted.. you might steal the blinds.. you want 1 person to hit top pair so you can double up... you need to get your value to from aces.. once in a while they're going to get busted but hey thats poker... id say 2 people playing you 3 total if you got aces is good..

How I play pocket A's depends on whether I am in a tournament or a cash game. In addition, position, the level of the blinds (in a tournament), and stack sizes play a role. Also, add in how tight and aggressiveness the players are who are in the pot ahead of me and behind me, yet to act. Yes, I'll play them aggressively, but how aggressively depends on these many factors.

I try to play AA preflop like I would any other hand worthy of a raise, 3/4 times the big blind(obviously stacks and positions come into play but the above is a general rule). For me it makes it difficult for others to know when you have AA or KJ.

...I love the always big raise or all in advice

For a Tourney, its the same as everything else - Depends on the situation. I usually give a raise of BB-3xBB. Sometimes I go allin preflop - rare though. It depends on the skill level of my opponent and my position/how many are in the hand. In heads up, I change it up a bit. I actually prefer to slow playem. Limp in and hope your opponent hits their Queen on the flop - Letem bet - then nail them to the wall. Of course you can have this backfire when 3 of the same suit pop or the board pairs or...But its like Kenny R. said - you gotta know when to foldem. And since you didn't bet the house with a raise, you should be able to lay them down -as painful as it is.

depend on your chip count and how you stack up to others at your table if im chip leader @ the table illmake a moderate raise. now on the other hand if im short stack id defenitaly go all in or wager atleast 50% of my chips

Pocket Aces is a great hand, but you do not want a lot of ppl seeing the flop! you might be thinking like, " oh the more ppl the more money to win "... Wrongg!!! not the thing u should be thinking about! You should raise with aces almost always, in whichever position you are, unless you think someone will raise it if you check. The thing is you dont want many limpers and then someone catches... If you put a sizable bet, some ppl will call and youll probably get a bigger pot by the flop one way or another, and on the other hand you will have more or less an i dea of what kind of cards the ppl in the table have just by them calling you. Now its improbable that someone has you beat on the flop. If you see that something like high cards on the board, someone probably made a nice pair, and u want to take their money right there and then! no catching for them! Now... if you see a possible straight or flush on the board... RAISE no matter What!!! a sizable bet preflop is very callable by suited conectores. You dont want someone to catch but at the same time you want their money. Betting a good portion of the pot will get you the most money in the long run if someone like what i said happens. Ofcourse if the board totally missed everyone, you can put a check if you think its a good move against the players on your table (that is if they are agressive), On the other hand they could think your bluffing by raising when a bad board hit but this really depends on who you are playing. Good luck at the tables

for me AA has only one move preflop ALL IN

If you smooth call. You let the whole table see the flop. Very bad for you. This is how AA gets cracked.

The idea is to isolate one or two players with this hand. You can't do that with a limp.


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if the blinds and antes are really high i like to a) shove all in preflop to look like iam stealing or b) make a small raise to temp someone to try and go over my head. when it is early in a tourny i ussually just do the 3x the BB raise

If there is a raise ahead of me I am all in with AA pre flop. If there are limpers I will throw out a pot size bet if the blinds are high and a percentage of my stack 25% or so if the blinds are low.

No matter what though I am all in if there is a raise before me.

My motto is, the only way to never get sucked out on is to never play hands when you're ahead. Therefore I fold AA every time - too much of a risk that I'll get sucked out on, because ANY hand can suck out against AA. When you play 2-7 offsuit, you never get sucked out on.

In all seriousness, I would agree with kmixer in most situations. Maybe if we had deep stacks I wouldn't quite go all in with a raise in front, but I would certainly make a substantial reraise. You should certainly not limp often with aces, nor should you move all in unless you are relatively short stacked. Go all in with aces when you are sure you will get called and always try to bet as much as you can preflop while still getting called.

Basically, I play it as any other raising hand - 3 or 4xBB with 1BB extra for each limper. Pretty standard - it's about a pot sized bet and should take out the trash.

I play them as hard as i can and will push all-in i need to get the suckouts out of the hand but i get one caller all of the time.....
I had AA in one game and it was the first hand of the MTT so i pushed out 505 and got 3 to call and one to push all-in had 4 + me all-in not one had an ace need less to say i won that hand...

and i agree with jamesdadeliver short stacked it works to get a call..

Normally, I'll play the basic 3 4x bb raise..and HOPE someone raises....then normally i push.......Once in a while if I'm at a particularly tight table I'll limp.....but that's very rare....unless I'm less than 10m or 10x bb, in this case...I'll push everytime...usually less than 10 bb you get a call by a big stack...

kidkvno1 said:

I play them as hard as i can and will push all-in i need to get the suckouts out of the hand but i get one caller all of the time.....
I had AA in one game and it was the first hand of the MTT so i pushed out 505 and got 3 to call and one to push all-in had 4 + me all-in not one had an ace need less to say i won that hand...

and i agree with jamesdadeliver short stacked it works to get a call..

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Well I suppose it depends on the limits you're playing, but eventually you won't get a call by those donkeys that are playing K-5 at the lower levels. By the way, you want people to have an ace, that way they have even fewer odds.

By the way, "needless to say" is a bit of a stretch, you're probably at a 50% chance to quadruple up, which is great odds and an instant call every time, but still a 50% chance to lose the hand.

UrBluffingMe said:

Advice to always do one thing or another when dealing with poker is usually inaccurate. I agree that you should raise the overwhelming majority of the time when you have AA, but you can't ALWAYS raise. You have to just limp or call with them OCCASIONALLY just so you don't become predictable. It goes something like this: If you ALWAYS raise when you have AA, players might not necessarily know when you have AA, since in theory, you are raising other hands too. But when you don't raise, they will know when you DON'T have AA.Do you see why?

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You should never limp with pocket Aces, you give your opponents a chance to catch trips or a str8 if the limp in with crappy cards.

Ranger390 said:

How I play pocket A's depends on whether I am in a tournament or a cash game. In addition, position, the level of the blinds (in a tournament), and stack sizes play a role. Also, add in how tight and aggressiveness the players are who are in the pot ahead of me and behind me, yet to act. Yes, I'll play them aggressively, but how aggressively depends on these many factors.

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Very good advice imo.

Zorba said:

Very good advice imo.

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Very good advice, certainly, but not helpful to those who need some guidance. I think giving an example or two might help that post greatly, because saying 'I would play it differently' applies to every hand.

jamesdadeliverer said:

Well I suppose it depends on the limits you're playing, but eventually you won't get a call by those donkeys that are playing K-5 at the lower levels. By the way, you want people to have an ace, that way they have even fewer odds.

By the way, "needless to say" is a bit of a stretch, you're probably at a 50% chance to quadruple up, which is great odds and an instant call every time, but still a 50% chance to lose the hand.

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True. And i see it not fit to slow play AA after i was beat 3 times for doing so..
i raised he reraised what was he thinking
kidkvno1 has Ac Ah Ad As Js: four aces.
nobleruler has 7h 7c Ad As Js: two pair, aces and sevens.
after playing and getting 4 of a kind 2 hands later i get KK and made the call to slow play them and would not have guessed on how the flop came KK9 i slow played it till the river and put out a big bet on a 2 no calls all folded lol and it gets even funner i got taken out by 4 of a kind :joyman:

I always raise more than usual with AA, like 4 or 5 times BB, hoping to get re-raised. Post flop is a different situation though, what is the most effective way to play after the flop showing 3 possible straight cards or a pair? Do you keep pushing showing strength? I know this is probably dependent on you knowledge of the players sitting at the table, correct???