raising under the gun with high pockets?

[dailies]

A few of the last tourneys i've been in, i caught KK and AA right after the big blind (which i assume means UTG, if not, please correct me). Every time it feels like i've played it wrong, i slow played aces, and someone caught cards on the turn, and i strong played the kinds, and won a measily two blinds early in the tourny.
How do you guys play this, especially early in a tourney, where you have no idea if there are a lot of re-raisers at your table.
Are you content with the small gain, or does it pay more to slow play it most times?

thanks

 

[naruto_miu]

UTG is the first 2 act in any pot, so that more or less means ur the first person in the pot right after the BB, as for playing the hand wrong I personally do what I think is good, for instance if the table your at is an action table with alot of raising, and reraising preflop, then I might be more willing to limp so I can add more juice to the pot all preflop, now if the table i'm at is a callers table then I'm going to bump it up because I only want maybe 1-2 ppl in the pot preflop, all this depends on your table. With that being said and done all things depend on your image at the table also, by this I mean if your an extremly tight player, then ppl are going to notice regardless wether you limp or not, and are only going to limp after you because they know that your a tight player, so there-fore there going to be wary of the fact that you only play AA/KK/QQ/AK/AQ and only good to great starting hands, now if this is the image you have at your table then I would suggest personally that you bump it up big preflop that so that way you don't end up getting stuck on the flop, hope that helps

 

[dailies]

thanks, that helps
i'm usually viewed as a newb/loose player, so i should prob combine that advice, and raise the 2 times big blind, because it will likely lead to 1-2 calls.

 

[Hisx1ncPS]

my .02

You say people view you as loose. This would mean that you are more likely to be called. AA and KK are much better hands preflop than post flop. Of course sometimes you will raise and everyone will fold, allowing you to take the blinds. This is a much better outcome than slow playing and letting someone win a big pot from you. Don't worry if people fold to your raise, since it is much better than getting burned by slow playing them.

My advice

Raise AA and KK PF just like you raise other hands PF. If your standard PF raise is 3x BB, don't min raise or raise 6x BB. This makes your hand much easier to read because people that are paying attention will notice something is up. Also, UTG you don't really have position on anyone, so you can get into trouble post flop if your opponent hits something. You should raise a little more than usual because you don't have position, and raise more if there are limpers.

General Wisdom is
+1 BB per limper
+1 BB for out of position

added to the standard 3-4BB raise

Assuming 1 limper, and UTG, I think 5-6BB is good. Sure, people will fold a lot, but they can't beat you by folding. Winning a small pot is much better than losing a large one.

 

[feitr]

thanks, that helps
i'm usually viewed as a newb/loose player, so i should prob combine that advice, and raise the 2 times big blind, because it will likely lead to 1-2 calls.

don't min raise aa/kk...you have terrible reverse implied odds and you are giving all players incredible implied odds preflop. Raise your normal amount...if you just pick up the blinds then so be it, but that is much better than raising min and spewing money postflop to pocket 2s or 67s that got such good implied odds preflop and hit big hands. I raise 4x bb everytime (50NL), if you are playing micro stakes then you might have to raise a little more and at higher stakes 3 1/2 x bb is fairly standard for most players i think. Adding 1 bb for every limper is a fairly good rule of thumb, except in some circumstances where you will want to be raising a little more than that.

 

[MFaith]

I think you should generally raise around 3-4 X BB with A-A or K-K; the only exception being an extremely active table where limping will give you the opportunity to re-raise. It's really a matter of matter of table activity; basically you have to put in whatever raise will give you 1 or 2 callers.

 

[matt6781]

kk-aa utg

these hands are typically great utg but do not slow play them or trouble will follow. minimum raise or more is suggested

 

[OnTilt902]

If it's early in a freeroll, you'll have no problem getting callers. Late in a game, I generally throw a nice raise out. Once other players call, then after the flop some might feel committed already or they may get a piece of the board and not want to lay their hand down. If you get no callers, don't worry. Some of the biggest pots I've won are with 5-8offsuit on big blind. Patience is key

 

[shinedown.45]

A few of the last tourneys i've been in, i caught KK and AA right after the big blind (which i assume means UTG, if not, please correct me). Every time it feels like i've played it wrong, i slow played aces, and someone caught cards on the turn, and i strong played the kinds, and won a measily two blinds early in the tourny.
How do you guys play this, especially early in a tourney, where you have no idea if there are a lot of re-raisers at your table.
Are you content with the small gain, or does it pay more to slow play it most times?

thanks

Do not change your betting pattern for any reason, there is no reason to limp from UTG with any premium hand.
When I am playing a tourney, I generally ask myself, before I start, "What size of opening bet am I going with today?"
So I already have a predetermined opening bet size before I even get into the game and I stick with that.
If you use the same bet sizing for every hand you open a pot with, it makes it alot harder for villian to put you on a hand.

It's better to win a small pot than lose a large one.

 

[roundcat]

Do not change your betting pattern for any reason, there is no reason to limp from UTG with any premium hand.
When I am playing a tourney, I generally ask myself, before I start, "What size of opening bet am I going with today?"
So I already have a predetermined opening bet size before I even get into the game and I stick with that.
If you use the same bet sizing for every hand you open a pot with, it makes it alot harder for villian to put you on a hand.

It's better to win a small pot than lose a large one.

Yes, heed Shinedown's words. I've been told repeatedly by pros to never, ever, EVER limp with aces.

 

[jokish123]

That is why UTG is such a bad position. When you are dealt strong cards UTG there really isnt much more you could do. If you limp, most likely someone is going to call/check and end up hitting a monster hand, which dominates your hand. Or if you raise UTG, you might scare everyone away from the hand.

So imo, the best play would be to raise about 2.5-3xbb in early position with a strong hand. Three things could happen: First, either everyone folds and you collect the blinds(not a bad thing but also not a good thing) Second, you could get people with marginal hands, in good position, to call..maybe they hit mid pair on flop and you might be able to milk them for a lot of money(This might be the best thing that could happen, although sometimes it could be deadly, depending on flop, turn, and river.) Third, if your raise was low enough, you might get someone to reraise/go all in (depending on stack sizes) with cards like AX or maybe even a decent pocket pair, in which case you have them dominated preflop and have the best odds of winning the hand( Absolutely the best thing that could happen)

 

[chadherczeg]

It depends on what your own table image is. If you are a tight player that doesn't raise except with premium hands then you might want to limp with them. But if you raise a lot of hands then definitely raise them because you will get much less respect than a tight player. Also, if you continue to see this pattern where everyone folds when you raise them and calls when you limp then go ahead and mix it up. raise 2x BB with them and confuse the other players a little. hopefully this answers your question and maybe you should try playing a hand like suited connectors from early position just like you would aces then show the bluff if everyone folds. because that will get others to loosen up against you also.

 

[MrMuckets]

Standard = Good
Predictable = Bad.

 

[chink44]

Just pay attention and see how the table is playing. Raise to 3-5X bb. Hope to get called by at least one or two people in this situation and see how the flop comes down. If its a crazy table then you may be able to get away with letting someone else raise pre and then firing away,

Better to win a small pot than lose a big one, right?