How to play AA or KK pre-flop

For the most part, I try and limp in with AA KK either hoping a player raises or more players also limp. I would imagine positioning is a factor when deciding to limp or raise, but would raising 2 or 3x the BB be better in order to get the connectors out of the way.

Limping isnt the best play in my opinion, depends on the spot, if you limp by trying to make opponent to shove then its fine, limping can make other players limp too and they can hit sets, draws other good flops, basically you make them to see flop for cheap price.

nikospov1 said:

For the most part, I try and limp in with AA KK either hoping a player raises or more players also limp. I would imagine positioning is a factor when deciding to limp or raise, but would raising 2 or 3x the BB be better in order to get the connectors out of the way.

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The more people that limp behind you, the more the value of your AA will diminish. Plug in AA in an equity calculator and see what happens with its equity the more people you add. The more people that see a flop the less likely that one pair will win the hand.

To balance it out, if you are first in on the SB you can just call hoping the BB just checks, or you can re-raise or call if he raises. Also, you could just flat a single raise from the BB to disguise your hand strength. Don't really want to play these types of hands multi-way.

The odds of winning AA very high preflop, but 100% of victory is never guaranteed. If we analyze the data, we conclude that a pair of aces against a random hand has a 75% chance of victory. In other words, we will lose one out of every 6.5 times.

If I'd been raising recently, and none got in the pot yet, I probably just call and wait for some opponent to raise. So I re raise. But it all depends how the opponents are playing. There are many different ways to play those hands, but generally I raise and reraise. If I have KK and an A falls on the board I reduce the speed and wait their atitudes, playing accordingly.

Dhendrixon said:

The more people that limp behind you, the more the value of your AA will diminish. Plug in AA in an equity calculator and see what happens with its equity the more people you add. The more people that see a flop the less likely that one pair will win the hand.

To balance it out, if you are first in on the SB you can just call hoping the BB just checks, or you can re-raise or call if he raises. Also, you could just flat a single raise from the BB to disguise your hand strength. Don't really want to play these types of hands multi-way.

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..... agree with colleague

Depends on position and stack size, but in general:

early position, big stack........ raise
mid position, big stack........ raise
late position, big stack........ raise


early position, med stack........ limp
mid position, med stack........ limp
late position, med stack........ raise


early position, small stack........ all-in
mid position, small stack........ all-in
late position, small stack........ all-in

kristersb123 said:

Limping isnt the best play in my opinion, depends on the spot, if you limp by trying to make opponent to shove then its fine, limping can make other players limp too and they can hit sets, draws other good flops, basically you make them to see flop for cheap price.

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This exactly. AA and KK are extremely strong, but a random shove kind of gives it away. At the same time, limping allows people to get into the pot with marginal hands that might hit a two pair or a small set.

I think you have to raise with AA and KK. Whether that's your standard open, a minimum raise, or something else...well that depends on the rest of the players at the table and the position. Good luck at the tables.

nikospov1 said:

For the most part, I try and limp in with AA KK either hoping a player raises or more players also limp. I would imagine positioning is a factor when deciding to limp or raise, but would raising 2 or 3x the BB be better in order to get the connectors out of the way.

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Thank U 4 Posting

How you play AA KK is dependent on how the table reacts to your actions. So if you raise 2bb and get 4 callers each time that is not the result we want. So we would adjust to either limping when limps are regularly attacked or raising larger to narrow the field.

We only ever want to limp if we are very sure that someone will raise. If our Villains are only raising with big hands then we do not limp as they will re-raise when we raise under those conditions.

We also want to raise with our premium hands because they then protect our raises when we have QJs etc. We want to play our range in a way that includes us raising 88 and AA. Unless of course our V are not paying attention then we can play a less balanced range.

How well you fold AA post flop should also dictate how you approach preflop. The old saying "Never go broke in a limped pot" applies here.

So if you have a strong 3 street game then you can be much more trappy preflop.


Hope this helps

Good afternoon.It is so risky to limp those cards specially if you are playing cash games.You don´t want to play the best pre flop hand against 4 or 5 guys , do you?.

AA and KK are very strong hands and you want to get as much money in preflop, so you should raise and reraise. However, I would raise them to the same size I raise my other hands so I don't give my hand away.

Ship it to the middle without any thought.

What you are do if you limp KK and an A appear on the flop? And if you limp AA and appear a flushdraw, straightdraw or a pair, like 99, TT, JJ, QQ appears and some player bet high or 3bet high?

In general we need to bet, 3bet, 4bet with these cards to avoid get involved in difficulty situations, but sometimes we can try to make traps, this are only an exception, try to make this less times, against less players, with certain players, with enough read, and be prepared to fold.