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Bentheman87
Visionary
Silver Level
"The problem with this strategy is that you will almost never be able to put your opponent on a hand (minraise gives BB good enough odds to call any two cards - he obviously doesn't know you have AA), and you could stack off easily after his trash hand hits a big flop and you have no idea what he has. (ie: you min-raise, he calls, from comes 942, he check-raises you all-in, does he have you beat? tough decision)."
True, most players would call with anything reasonable with 3.5:1 pot odds and its hard to put the opponent on a hand. But at least you will have position on him. And you are saying its a bad strategy because he might flop two pair or something to beat me. That's always a risk, but the flop might as well come J 5 2 when he has QJ, and he will be ready to lose all of his chips.
True, most players would call with anything reasonable with 3.5:1 pot odds and its hard to put the opponent on a hand. But at least you will have position on him. And you are saying its a bad strategy because he might flop two pair or something to beat me. That's always a risk, but the flop might as well come J 5 2 when he has QJ, and he will be ready to lose all of his chips.
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ol_sin
Rising Star
Bronze Level
plain and simple, ALWAYS raise with AA. whether in early or late.
some tricky players will limp with AA in early position which is a great way to take alot of money from someone, but its also a great way to lose alot of money to someone. (you gotta hope someone will raise so you can reraise) but thats a pretty advanced play that you should only pull off if you know your opponents well enough. which, at this point, most players are not good enough at reading their opponents to keep from losing to much money to trips, two pair or whatever. You also have to be able to fold it (which, virtually no beginning players can) Just stay away from that play until later.
The main problem here is a pretty common one. Doyle said the problem with Aces is you either win alittle, or lose alot. This is pretty accurate. Alot of players think that because they have a good hand, they have to win alot of money but the truth is, alot of good hands won't win you very much. In order for you to win alot of money in hand, your opponent has to have something also. this is the case with hands like full boats or quads.
ie:
your hole cards are 55
flop is 55A
do you really expect to win alot here? you're not. you have great hand, but you're not. you have all four 5's, so noone has trip 5s. The more likely chance is that your opponent has an A, but even he will be scared of the pair on the board. your best hope is to try and convince him you are trying to steal, which is a very fragile play. your other hope, is the off chance that they have AA.
the fact is, AA (and other big hands) isn't as an exciting hand as people think. it is really strong, but hands like this aren't the most profitable. AA is and pretty cut and dry. Always raise and don't expect to win alot.
one thing about players that like to limp in late with AA is that in the long they are going to lose money because of this. of course, there are those times when they win good sized pots by conceiling their hand, but they are giving you a chance to catch a better hand. so, if they are agressive (which they usually are because they have to be) they will push you out most of the time, and they will win just as much money as they would have normally (perhaps alittle bit more). If you do catch something, better than an AA (not uncommon) than they will lose alot of money to you thinking what they have is so well hidden. Their best bet is that they either flop an Ace (remote possiblility at best) or their opponent will flop top pair. the problem with this is, any decent player can fold top pair, so they will still not win alot of money. So, effectively, they are hiding there hand from opponents that may have lost a good amount of money to them anyways (because they're not good players) and risking losing alot of money to opponents who know better.
some tricky players will limp with AA in early position which is a great way to take alot of money from someone, but its also a great way to lose alot of money to someone. (you gotta hope someone will raise so you can reraise) but thats a pretty advanced play that you should only pull off if you know your opponents well enough. which, at this point, most players are not good enough at reading their opponents to keep from losing to much money to trips, two pair or whatever. You also have to be able to fold it (which, virtually no beginning players can) Just stay away from that play until later.
The main problem here is a pretty common one. Doyle said the problem with Aces is you either win alittle, or lose alot. This is pretty accurate. Alot of players think that because they have a good hand, they have to win alot of money but the truth is, alot of good hands won't win you very much. In order for you to win alot of money in hand, your opponent has to have something also. this is the case with hands like full boats or quads.
ie:
your hole cards are 55
flop is 55A
do you really expect to win alot here? you're not. you have great hand, but you're not. you have all four 5's, so noone has trip 5s. The more likely chance is that your opponent has an A, but even he will be scared of the pair on the board. your best hope is to try and convince him you are trying to steal, which is a very fragile play. your other hope, is the off chance that they have AA.
the fact is, AA (and other big hands) isn't as an exciting hand as people think. it is really strong, but hands like this aren't the most profitable. AA is and pretty cut and dry. Always raise and don't expect to win alot.
one thing about players that like to limp in late with AA is that in the long they are going to lose money because of this. of course, there are those times when they win good sized pots by conceiling their hand, but they are giving you a chance to catch a better hand. so, if they are agressive (which they usually are because they have to be) they will push you out most of the time, and they will win just as much money as they would have normally (perhaps alittle bit more). If you do catch something, better than an AA (not uncommon) than they will lose alot of money to you thinking what they have is so well hidden. Their best bet is that they either flop an Ace (remote possiblility at best) or their opponent will flop top pair. the problem with this is, any decent player can fold top pair, so they will still not win alot of money. So, effectively, they are hiding there hand from opponents that may have lost a good amount of money to them anyways (because they're not good players) and risking losing alot of money to opponents who know better.
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ph_il
...
Silver Level
This is really poor thinking. This can also be said about any other pairs and hands like AK, so do you not raise these hands either? You may have lost with AA before, but that will happen. I lost a hand while holding AcAs vs AdKs, I was a dominating lead and my opponent beat me with trip Kings. Its sucks, but it happens.
AA, like any other hand, is not a guaranteed winner but AA will win majority of the time against 1 or 2 players. However, the more players AA has to go against the lower the chance it has of winning. Thats where raising comes in. This (usually) will accomplish 2 things: The weaker hands will fold and you will isolate the field and it also builds the pot. Not only do you want to win with AA, but you want to win big and you're not going get that big pot if you build it up with a raise.
Lets look at a couple of scenarios:
A) Its the start of an SnG and everyone has a 1500 stack. Blinds are 15/30. You're in Mid position with AsAd and everyone limps before you, you limp, and the whole table sees the flop.
It comes Kh 5h 5d
You have an over pair, but how are you going to play this hand? You can bet out, but any one of your opponents can have a 5 and if you are reraise, you might have to fold. Or you can call but you probably wont have a lot of confidence in your hand, right?
B) Now, say its the same scenario but you raise it 4x the BB and you only have 3 callers.
The flop is Kh 5h 5d
Now, this flop isnt as hard to play because you know there is very little chance any of your opponents is holding a 5. And an even smaller chance of any of them holding quads. You probably have the best hand, and if an opponent is holding a K, you can expect a lot action from them.
So, you actually benefit more raising with AA and taking down a small pot than you do with not raising and having to fold/losing a big pot with AA.
As for the OPs question:
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssss.
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ItsMrZombieToU
Rock Star
Silver Level
Learned my lesson with limping decent pock pairs late in a tourney. Had pock jacks and limped. Board came out 10 high with no pairs so I figured I was in decent shape. BB had flopped 2 pair with his offsuited nonconsecutives and slow played them heavily. Cost me a run at the Final Table, was sittin in 5th on final 2 tables, and wound up 17th. Sucked not making FT but atleast I learned a valuable lesson from the experience. Dont limp decent range to hi range pocket pairs.
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Gandalf
Rising Star
Bronze Level
If you don't get action with your monsters maybe you should try also raising with your worse hands. If you're playing 6 handed you can go down to raising KQo from UTG but no hands worse. I'm surprised only Goron and me brought this up...
Personally I raise AA from every position 99% of the time and 3bet 95% of the time. Only time I can think of limping AA is from UTG when there's a maniac acting after me 'n raising every hand. Even then I 3bet his arse off.
Personally I raise AA from every position 99% of the time and 3bet 95% of the time. Only time I can think of limping AA is from UTG when there's a maniac acting after me 'n raising every hand. Even then I 3bet his arse off.
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haccongtu
Rising Star
Bronze Level
pocket AA in late position if there is no one to bet then you can bet to 1/3 to double check other player had pair or not .If there is a reraise you can played save just make call . Never put all in in late position you might get trouble other players with two small pairs or three of kind .