50nl FR playing AA postflop

pokerstars GAME #16166746370: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/03/22 - 13:49:20 (ET)
Table 'Nemesis III' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: JERONIMOX10 ($42.10 in chips)
Seat 2: dong88 ($65.20 in chips)
Seat 3: aggielaw ($50.20 in chips)
Seat 4: Auflauf ($66.55 in chips)
Seat 5: Fluminho ($36.80 in chips)
Seat 6: siouxfalls ($30.25 in chips)
Seat 7: zachvac ($49.25 in chips)
Seat 9: JeanVelJean ($26.70 in chips)
JERONIMOX10: posts small blind $0.25
dong88: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zachvac [Ad Ah]
aggielaw: calls $0.50
Auflauf: folds
Fluminho: folds
siouxfalls: folds
zachvac: raises $1.50 to $2
JeanVelJean: folds
JERONIMOX10: folds
dong88: folds
aggielaw: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [7h 8s 6d]
aggielaw: checks
zachvac: bets $3
aggielaw: raises $4.50 to $7.50
zachvac: ???

villain is 30/9/2.67 over ~40 hands.

ewwwww

I probably raise more pf against a player like this, especially if I've been making positional raises lately. What's his flop aggression?

So many of his limp-calling hands hit this flop it's disgusting. It would be fine if he was passive because we could turbomuck it, but he's aggressive which means he could be doing this with a lot of hands that you have beat too. Nasty spot.

I hate getting check/called with overpairs.

I'd probably call it down, and lose.

Definitely would've raised more preflop against him but I would have to fold the aces as he seems to have you completely dominated.

I'd still call this down.

I think he could be thinking "There's no way those cards helped this Zach schmuck so I'm going to chase *him* off."

I'm guessing he had an overpair. Maybe 9/9?

preflop raise is to small. Make it $3 because that will give you a better stack to pot ratio and make the hand easier to play post flop.

Munchrs said:

preflop raise is to small. Make it $3 because that will give you a better stack to pot ratio and make the hand easier to play post flop.

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So I understand how in this example it'd be easier to play raising to $3, but are you and others who advocate the same thing really saying we should be raising to $3 every time we have a monster and one limper?

I usually go with the 4bb +1 bb for each limper tactic, regardless of what cards I hold if i'm gonna raise, I might do it with j10s in lp if someone has posted to pick up dead money or against someone who frequently limps and folds to cbets. This will give them no adequate information on your hand other than there is more money in the pot so you are going to raise more. As played I'd call the flop and reevaluate the turn. I don't know exactly how this opponent plays but if he checkraises the flop and bets pot on the turn i'm probably going to let it go unless I have some kind of note on this guy. Your both deep and you only have 1 pair so if he doesnt slow down on the turn get out imo.

Munchrs said:

preflop raise is to small. Make it $3 because that will give you a better stack to pot ratio and make the hand easier to play post flop.

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I disagree. Raising to $3 is going to chase the limper off most of the time, and with A/A you want a caller.

I play 6-max $25 NL, and bet much like Richly2008 describes. I open for 4BB, +1 for every limper. But a 3BB bet is standard and with A/A (and tight people left to act after me) I see nothing wrong with foregoing the extra 1BB bet. If that's Zach's standard betting pattern, then it's not good to deviate.

Tough spot. You made a "standard 3x+1" raise against an aggressive opponent with 100bb stacks which can leave you with many tough choices postflop. A highly coordinated flop of middle cards didn't help. If I'm thinking right I check behind on the flop and play it for pot control (even with the HIGH probability that a free card may beat me) .

If I were in your situation, I'd likely call and then try to get to SD as cheaply as possible. Not sure if that's the right play but I can't fold my aces just yet against this opponent. I call and see what the turn brings and how he proceeds.

Edit to add: Professional No-Limit by Flynn, Mehta, and Miller advocates basing your preflop raise size on the likely number of callers and the SPR you are looking to hit. In other words they would raise more in this hand to create a more favorable SRP. Here a raise to ~$3 should be sufficient. So yes, you might raise more with some hands (depending on the type of hand) than with others.

WVHillbilly said:

Edit to add: Professional No-Limit by Flynn, Mehta, and Miller advocates basing your preflop raise size on the likely number of callers and the SPR you are looking to hit. In other words they would raise more in this hand to create a more favorable SRP. Here a raise to ~$3 should be sufficient. So yes, you might raise more with some hands (depending on the type of hand) than with others.

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I havent gotten this book yet, I have heard mixed reviews, but heard it was pretty good overall. What is SPR and SRP? The problem I have with raising x amount for a certain type of hand is that I think it gives away too much info and makes it easier for them to play against you postflop. When i play I routinely take notes on the amount of thier preflop raise and what kind of hands they showdown, when they do. I've noticed a lot of players will raise thier premium hands a lot differently then thier speculative and marginal hands, which helps to narrow down thier hand ranges and make them easier to play against.

Last night I had a guy in a similar position.
He had A/A and I had Q/T.
I shoved a 9/T/Q flop (I had him on A/Q) and he couldn't abandon his aces.
Result

SPR is the ratio of the preflop pot to the remaining effective stack size (here it is $47.25 remaining in zach's stack to 4.75 in preflop pot or ~10). With AA a SPR under 7 is generally what we want to shoot for against most opponents. The authors discuss the implications of varying your preflop raise size to manipulate SPR. Basically they come to the conclusion that it generally doesn't matter in most situations. In the hand from the OP they would have us raise to $3 with any hand likely to make TP or an overpair (so we might make the same raise with JJ+, KQ+ here not just aces or kings) this would create a SPR of just under 7.

So, yes, only raising big with AA is a mistake but making bigger than normal raises with a range of hands can be profitable and leads to easier decision making postflop.

zachvac said:

So I understand how in this example it'd be easier to play raising to $3, but are you and others who advocate the same thing really saying we should be raising to $3 every time we have a monster and one limper?

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no, it depends on stack sizes/player types and steal equity and such but generally you want as much money in p/f with AA, also moer money in p/f makes it easier as you are better commited.

Note: you need to balance by raising with weak hands some times.