How To Play AA "early" in a MTT

bullishwwd

bullishwwd

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You are playing in a MTT, $10+1, "online NLHE tourney" with 1,000 starting players.

Everyone has started with 1500 in chips and its "only" the third hand of the tourney.



You get "AA "on the button", UTG raises 4 x BB, the cut-off raises the Pot, and everyone else folds to you.



How do you play your rockets and why?



Best regards, Wally
 
NBA2K10ROCKETS

NBA2K10ROCKETS

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no question all in dont let him get a chance to see a flop you have the best hand at the moment dont let him catch up and hit on the flop.
 
bazerk

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All in...even if you just call the cutoff's re-raise, UTG will shove if UTG has a hand (as represented by the 4xBB bet from that position).
 
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marknz88

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All-in and look to double up early on, then bully the table if you feel comfortable doing so

If you suckout, you know you made the right decision..keep repeating this with AA over the long run and youll win far move chips than what you lose
 
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Wardy88

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I recently had a discussion with a mate of mine about a situation like this, it was a home game with about 18 players and I said that a case could be made for folding AA early on in the tourney if you believed that you were better than all of your opponents.

With 1000 entrants I don't know if anyone could be confident of being better than everyone, but maybe folding could be seen as a good idea if you believed you could win as many chips as a double up with less risk later?

Just another way of looking at it I guess
 
dcor

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I recently had a discussion with a mate of mine about a situation like this, it was a home game with about 18 players and I said that a case could be made for folding AA early on in the tourney if you believed that you were better than all of your opponents.

With 1000 entrants I don't know if anyone could be confident of being better than everyone, but maybe folding could be seen as a good idea if you believed you could win as many chips as a double up with less risk later?

Just another way of looking at it I guess

If you ARE in fact better than them....you dont fold here haha. In fact, even in that situation you were just talking about at the home game, there should be no fold....unless about 3 or 4 other people had already shoved all in on the third hand in the home game, I really dont see how a case can be made for that.
 
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gopnik885

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You must go All-in here , the raises probebly got A-K or A-Q or top pair, the re-raiser must have a high pair, probably KK or QQ or maybe A-K but no probably, so you have to go all in to make one of them to fold and get your chances higher.
 
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Wardy88

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haha yeah I see your point dcor :p, just trying to break the mold a bit, with the 1000 entrants I can't really see anybody folding AA with that PF action.

I believe your right in saying that folding at a home game with multiple all-ins would likely be better.

I was wondering if anyone would consider folding in this spot in order to try and limit variance? or is this just crazy thinking?
 
Tom1559

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Sounds familiar but here goes. I would go all in without a doubt. Logic being take everybody else out and hope that UTG calls. You know you are favorite and in a one to one I would take my chances everytime with pocket A's. Chances are you are going to double up early which will alow you to take open up a bit steal some blinds and build your stack.
 
rcrocketman

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haha yeah I see your point dcor :p, just trying to break the mold a bit, with the 1000 entrants I can't really see anybody folding AA with that PF action.

I believe your right in saying that folding at a home game with multiple all-ins would likely be better.

I was wondering if anyone would consider folding in this spot in order to try and limit variance? or is this just crazy thinking?

That ^ is just 'crazy thinking'. These are 1500chip online tournaments we're talking about here and there's not alot of room for play in them (ie. in early levels if you raise up in just one hand and then fire out a c-bet you're already getting a bit low in chips).
You won't find a better spot than this for getting all of your chips in... and whatever way you can figure on getting all of your opponent's chips in the better!!!!!
I think when you're talking about folding AA in early levels you'd be referring to a deepstack tournament.. something like wsop MnEvent if you''re Phil Helmuth and are facing multiple opponents who are allin.

Back to the hand in question.
You want to get all of your opponents chips into the middle. I think you just shove it allin here. You might get called by QQ and if you were to just flat there could be cards on the flop that will kill the action for you (ie. an A or K).
The shove could also look like AK getting it in in hopes of just taking it down preflop. If it were a deepstack tournament there'd be arguments for flatting here but it's not, it's a 1500 chip donkament..... get it allin!
 
bgomez89

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how much the the CO raise it to?
 
rcrocketman

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All in...even if you just call the cutoff's re-raise, UTG will shove if UTG has a hand (as represented by the 4xBB bet from that position).

What would be so bad about that? Don't you want them to get their chips into the pot?

Not sure why a few here are suggesting to start stealing blinds if you double up in this spot??? Blind in early levels aren't worth 'stealing' at all. This is a serious leak. Winning pots is worth it... stealing blinds isn't.
 
blott

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simple , when you're ahead you need to get your chips in pre or post flop.
AA is like BOGOF:D
 
M33K3R

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Shove, Shove, Shove. Too risky calling and seeing a flop in case you get outflopped.
 
bazerk

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What would be so bad about that? Don't you want them to get their chips into the pot?

Not sure why a few here are suggesting to start stealing blinds if you double up in this spot??? Blind in early levels aren't worth 'stealing' at all. This is a serious leak. Winning pots is worth it... stealing blinds isn't.

Um, not suggesting Button/AA steal the blinds?! :confused:

Generally with this type of betting pattern, Button will end up being all in anyway if UTG & CO have hands represented by their betting/raising:
  • UTG bet 4xBB
  • CO re-raises
  • If Button calls...UTG will shove (if UTG has hand represented by initial bet)
  • CO will call shove (if CO has hand represented by re-raise)
  • Button will call shove with AA so Button might as well go all in when the action reaches him/her the 1st time around (rather then the 2nd)
I'm guessing UTG & CO probably have decent hands since this is an $11 tourney (vs a freeroll) but there are donks @ every level.
 
Pbland

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I agree with all other posts saying to go all-in. When there's 1,000 players, I've seen it so many times when very early someone over bets with middle pockets and then when they get raised they call or go all-in. So with 2 people, you can safely go all-in and hopefully only the CO calls.
 
SavagePenguin

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I shove.

I see people stack on hand #1 with all kinds of garbage. I guess they figure they'll double up or go home. They're not smart enough to understand how strong your shove in that position is, so they call with A/Js and stuff.

You are not going to get any better opportunities, they both show strength, so get it all in while people are dumb enough to call.

Late in a tournament people are smarter and will see this as a sign of strength. They'll fold their J/J and A/Q hands. So at that point you may want to call and hope that UTG shoves or that you can stack them with TPTK or their weaker overpair on the flop.
 
dantheman91

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It probably depends on how much the CO raised. If he only raised to pot the pot would currently be standing at about 222 But, I would definitely raise at least to 750-1.2k. I don't want to push everyone out of the pot by over raising. I want to actually win a big pot with pocket rockets.
 
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I would rather raise to 2.5 - 3 times what the second raiser put in than just go all in.
Going all in puts a much higher chance that both players will fold their AQ, 1010 type hands.
If intial raiser raised to 80 and second raiser raised to about 200, I probably raise to about 500 or 600. Either player could still come back over the top of you anyway if they want.
 
StormRaven

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I shove.

I see people stack on hand #1 with all kinds of garbage. I guess they figure they'll double up or go home. They're not smart enough to understand how strong your shove in that position is, so they call with A/Js and stuff.

You are not going to get any better opportunities, they both show strength, so get it all in while people are dumb enough to call.

Late in a tournament people are smarter and will see this as a sign of strength. They'll fold their J/J and A/Q hands. So at that point you may want to call and hope that UTG shoves or that you can stack them with TPTK or their weaker overpair on the flop.

^^^Exactly. People often have the double up or go home mentality during the first few hands of a tourney and you will not find a better spot to do this. Take advantage with the best starting pf hand and hope it holds. By shoving all in you are also hoping to isolate here. With a reraise you may get callers from action junkies looking to get lucky. The more callers you have, the less likely your AA will hold.
 
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JEP712

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I would think that the 2nd re-raiser has a strong hand. I wouldn't shove yet. I just 2x-3x the current pot and hope that either the two players will raise. If you get a raise, then shove all in. AA in my opinion is a good hand to get heads up all in with preflop. I'm not that experienced, so you might want to wait for more opinions for the higher up players here at CardsChat.
 
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leon818

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I think it would be more safe to call instead of allin, and see how they act after the flop. As i ve seen alot of bad beat with AA, especially net poker
 
spiderman637

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Well i have had these doubt long back and after extensive discussion from many good players around the world i came into this strategy....

If u are in early position with AA, bet 4xBB, and if any one reraises you, go allin preflop....
If u are in middle or late position, just go allin pre flop....
Wat many good players tell me is that never let ur opponents the chance to see the flop cheaply if u r holding AA.

Any ways this same question was discussed very exclusively by some very good players in one of my threads "Limping in with pocket aces".Try to find it and take opinion from that thread too mate....
 
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only_bridge

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Pocket rockets can be a tad tricky to play early when its dbl stack, and its folded to you. But this situation is really a no brainer. All-in, and hope on one caller. Or better yet, two callers
 
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LaMinaccia

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ALL-IN and nothing else early in an MTT.
 
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