Limping AA/KK utg?

[Matt_Burns88]

It really depends on the table texture. I recently played a local game where a guy would raise literally every hand if no one had raised before. I figured this out so when I got AA in EP, I just flatted, because I knew he would raise. If I'd raised he would almost certainly have folded. I 3-bet and he called. Flop came JT4 (I think), I bet around half pot he shoved, I called, he turned over AJ. Board bricked and I took all his money.

Generally though, I'm raising and 3-betting with my AA and KK.

 

[Rui Ferreira]

It really depends on the table texture. I recently played a local game where a guy would raise literally every hand if no one had raised before. I figured this out so when I got AA in EP, I just flatted, because I knew he would raise. If I'd raised he would almost certainly have folded. I 3-bet and he called. Flop came JT4 (I think), I bet around half pot he shoved, I called, he turned over AJ. Board bricked and I took all his money.

Generally though, I'm raising and 3-betting with my AA and KK.

When you go betting on the pre-flop it's never good to limping yet but in this situation you give the villain a chance to see the flop without paying anything and if the flop came favorable to villain you don't give up and you can lose a lot of chips and even be eliminated from the tournament for your mistake
:top::burnout:

 

[uri73796]

Texture, opponents, style of play, stack depth,position-all these factors play an important role in the hand.AA you can beat them 93o

 

[Matt_Burns88]

When you go betting on the pre-flop it's never good to limping yet but in this situation you give the villain a chance to see the flop without paying anything and if the flop came favorable to villain you don't give up and you can lose a lot of chips and even be eliminated from the tournament for your mistake
:top::burnout:

So you would play 100% of your AA/KK in early position with a raise, regardless of table texture?

You are leaving money on the table, if you don't learn to adjust your game to your opponents. Sure, in most cases, I'm raising, but against this guy, I'm going to give him the chance to hang himself. I could have won $6 by raising pre-flop and making him fold a huge percentage of his range and taking down the blinds, but by calling and letting him be the aggressor he ended up getting attached to his hand and taking him for his whole stack in a pot worth nearly $800.

Sure, you run the risk of getting outdrawn more often, but you are giving yourself the best opportunity to win the most money.

 

[uri73796]

We need a clear plan for the preflop and the game as a whole.

 

[mara2259]

Everything is pretty simple. Two cards on hand and five on the table. From these cards you can build a lot of poker hands, the code of which must be multiplied by 8, according to the number of your opponents. You have a ready hand (AA) that can beat any formed pair without amplification, but is powerless against stronger hands, starting from two small pairs and beyond. Conclusion: the first thing that needs to be done is to reduce the number of applicants, the second is to make pay for fans to enter the game with hands like K8 and so on. This can be achieved with an impressive raise. The bad news is that even with precautionary measures, you will not always achieve victory. Other participants can also have playable hands, which can be strengthened by the will of Lady Good Luck. But disappointment will be less, because you lose to a worthy opponent. Good luck!

 

[ventrolloquist]

I was just wondering how everybody else plays top hands under the gun in a regular 9 person holdem table. It works beautifully for me when people cooperate and raise, but I saw how it can completely go awry yesterday when it didn't pan out for me. (K6 checked the bb and flopped a set) I usually don't do this everytime i get aces or kings first to act; it depends on if i see a short stack that could push or if somebodys on tilt, etc. Is it a good play to limp these hands, or should you just raise so there's no chance of a cheap limp-around? How does everyone else play AA, KK, etc UTG? Thanks!

Mostly a terrible idea in cash games. Also if those are the only hands you limp you are super exploitable and observant players may just fold, even if they haven't seen what you're limping with. And if you have to add bluffs to your limping range just so that you can limp AA/KK unexploitedably then that's just a little weird lol. Because if you always raise and suddenly you limp (and from UTG of all positions) that's a blatantly obvious sign you have aces, and almost everyone who's played more than a 1000 hands of poker in their life will know what's up. I've seen it work in short-stacked freerolls where nobody pays any attention (as a limp reriase). So basically (at least in cash games), because limping says "I have aces / kings", you are losing a bunch of EV with your strongest hands. And also giving players behind to a good price to call with speculative (against your super narrow range) hands like pocket pairs so that they can setmine and outplay you postflop. Also if you add a few more limping hands to your range (to stay unexploitable), you end up losing EV with your otherwise strong UTG range by not raising those hands.

Even if you play at some kind of weird live poker table where you have a limping range (because nobody ever folds or something like that), then raising your aces is still obviously the best move. So there's not a lot of situations where it's profitable, and it should never be done with regs at the table.

But, it's a totally valid move with fish in MTT's when you expect a few limps and a shove (like you said). Read the table to try and avoid going multiway because those aces go down in value multiway on action flops. I think you already know the answer to your own question. If it's a limpy table with 2 or 3 shortstacked shovers (and when the limpers usually fold to shoves and pay no attention) I think it's an excellent move, this way you induce a shove that may have otherwise been a fold and also pick up a few extra BB's worth of limps. Aces are best in heads up pots (and 3-way at most) so I would only do this when I'm fairly confident this move would result in a heads up pot and not multiway (this applies even more with KK).

 

[recerveau]

I was just wondering how everybody else plays top hands under the gun in a regular 9 person holdem table. It works beautifully for me when people cooperate and raise, but I saw how it can completely go awry yesterday when it didn't pan out for me. (K6 checked the bb and flopped a set) I usually don't do this everytime i get aces or kings first to act; it depends on if i see a short stack that could push or if somebodys on tilt, etc. Is it a good play to limp these hands, or should you just raise so there's no chance of a cheap limp-around? How does everyone else play AA, KK, etc UTG? Thanks!

I practically never limp into that position.
In some exceptional situation, rarely!

 

[kkonicke]

I see a lot more limping with AA and KK preflop in tournament poker than cash games. It probably makes more sense in an aggressive game than a tight game in general. I personally will always raise preflop with those hands.

 

[ksandr010]

For the most part, I wouldn't limp while in utg. But in some situations, sometimes you can limp with AA, but never with KK. Sometimes I will limp if there are aggressive players after me who will try to isolate me. In that case, I will make a re-raise and go All-in

 

[Balanced]

I think most people feel like it would be pretty hard to construct a well balanced raise/limp range in that spot. Also raising is always better in my opinion because it gives you 2 ways to win the pot.

 

[perrywh]

In freeroll I get it in preflop! In cc freeroll I limp with a raise expected! Then bet the pot or bigger!

 

[1player2]

Great Question

I personally think Raising is the best choice so you can eliminate small pairs and random suited gapped and connected cards. I dislike losing with my AA/KK or having the whole table shutdown because the strength your showing from a raise utg. The raise will isolate and give you a much better chance to take a large percentage of the pots played although taking the blinds with no action will happen as well my friend. Limping will work sometimes but you will risk seeing a flop 5 ways for example and losing your stack to rags or being forced into hard choises if someone shoves on a wet bored when you only have one pair.

Good Luck

 

[Misofer]

I believe that you shouldn't limp aces or kings 99% of the time. It really all depends in your reads of the table you are playing. But generally speaking you want to defend your hand and it's value pre-flop.

 

[luckyou]

I would like to limp from UTG from time to time to create less exploitable image, and ive seen a lot of professional players note label when someone limp from UTG

 

[uri73796]

Can someone explain to me when I get a good card from someone who turns out to be better, why this happens?

 

[luckyou]

Can someone explain to me when I get a good card from someone who turns out to be better, why this happens?

You should consider even AA to play with caution if someone is aggressive too much especially in low stakes means he got something think twice what hand he might have to beat you. I lose so much with AK and i fold also too much

 

[AIexander K]

This technique is sometimes worth using. But we must carefully look at the table ...
You need rather non-standard players in a late position (if M is big), or a rather rare combination of stack sizes and opposing characters (I’m even hard to describe which one) with small M, so that this technique is more profitable than a standard small raise ... Although, I repeat once again - it all depends on the stacks.
At the same time, I came up with an important rule for myself. If I play AA, KK this way, then I am internally ready to throw AA, KK postflop with a dangerous board.

 

[pauloandre100]

There is no limp in cash game, take that out of your game. Never do that, you always have to raise.

 

[luckyou]

There is no limp in cash game, take that out of your game. Never do that, you always have to raise.

Totally agree with you but sometimes other players will raise you with wider hands so you are preparing your 3bet

 

[Evan Jarvis]

I was just wondering how everybody else plays top hands under the gun in a regular 9 person holdem table. It works beautifully for me when people cooperate and raise, but I saw how it can completely go awry yesterday when it didn't pan out for me. (K6 checked the bb and flopped a set) I usually don't do this everytime i get aces or kings first to act; it depends on if i see a short stack that could push or if somebodys on tilt, etc. Is it a good play to limp these hands, or should you just raise so there's no chance of a cheap limp-around? How does everyone else play AA, KK, etc UTG? Thanks!

Mixing in limps with AA and KK can definitely be a winning strategy on the right tables.
I find it especially effective in tournaments when many players with short stacks are looking for a spot to jam all in.

The important thing, actually ESSENTIAL thing to remember is that if it gets limped around you no longer have a license to simply get all in and go broke with your one pair hand.

Once you've seen a flop with 4+ people you need to tread cautiously and look to only get 1 or 2 bets in postflop as opposed to all of them.

As long as you're doing that, you should be fine to have this play in your arsenal!

 

[Chief talking bull]

I'm always mixing up my play to not be predictable. The only time I'll limp in with AA is when I think there's a player or two that will raise and then I'll come over the top and go all in. It gets a little scary if no one raises and a lot of people limp in though.

 

[kokainomano]

in the online rooms, I think everything is calculated, I have realized that European countries have more chances to win

 

[Chibude4040]

man, this hands are monster hands and you should not never give up this cards

 

[Rocky87345]

Limped with AA as short stack utg. Got called by JJ and A10. JJ floped set so I lost. I would have trippled up though. If I shoved preflop A10 might have folded. JJ would of called either way. I wanted as many people in the hand as possible because I wanted to win the most chips possible so what I wanted to happen preflop happened. Just bad luck. I would do it the same way next time hopefully I won't be so unlucky.:icon_puke