How to play AA or KK - Limping from early position good or not?

[Xmaster]

I don't like limping those hands in Ep. Only if there is a decent chance, that somebody will raise you, because you have really agressiv players behind you. But normally there will just be some more limpers and you have to play those hands oop in a multiway pot, which will be very costly, if somebody makes a better hand than you.

 

[teepack]

I also think it depends on where you are in the tournament. If you are at the latter stages of the tourney and pickng up blinds and antes is important, then I just shove pre-flop and hope only 1 person calls with an AK or something like that. But even if everybody folds, I have just up the blinds and antes, which is significant at that stage of the game.

 

[MaxDamage]

dont limp AA or KK

If u sit in early position with aces or kings, it is a bad idea to limp!
While this strategy disguised the strength of your hand, it also allows for all the other players to see a flop for cheap (and the big blind even gets one for free!).
So if u just limp, a lot of times u'll be playing a flop with 5 or more players in the hand. Do you really want to play aces (which is still only one pair! ) out of position against 5 or more players? Always raise to avoid guessing if ur aces or kings are still good after the flop and to eliminate the chance of your opponents outflopping you!

 

[shanebob123]

Bullets!!!!

Is it best to go all in with pocket aces preflop or play them?

 

[PCK]

Lol,depends man of you`re stack size,if you`re deep play them,if you are short stack shove,is that simple...

 

[Icebear847]

PCK is right depends on your stack, you have to ask yourself when get them, what is the best way for me to get the most value out of these? Same with kings.

 

[donkcentralFF]

Anytime u can get them all in preflop go for it...

 

[Icebear847]

I respectfuly disagree with you donkcentral, if the table is tight and is folding alot your going to just get the blinds and antes but if you can let that KQ catch a card you can get way more value maybe even stack them if you take a flop with them.

 

[Joed1580]

U loose all value shoving

 

[westside1950]

If you feel like your opponents is loose enough to call you preflop them just shove it.
Otherwise play them - but dont play them as absoulte nuts all the time - one the flop comes they can easily be cracked. So, be careful

 

[Marcwantstowin]

As Westside1950 insinuates you should really only shove all-in if you think your opponents are likely to call you.

Now I would say if you are playing a freeroll, (but not a CC one), early in the tournament I would tend to shove as there are bound to be some idiots who will call you with anything. This would be okay if the poker gods are on your side and the idiot doesn't flop 2 pair with 7 2!! Overall I would say how you play your aces depends on numerous things but mainly on who you are playing, how they are playing and are they likely to call a shove or not? Gl in the future

 

[Cardozo]

I think playing them is best.

I tend to find if I re-raise they often shove and I call. Or if they call, hit a king I'm half potting it to the river!

 

[shanebob123]

Thanks guys.. took advise and hit set with bullets and am now in second on acr free roll. Playing them made me more chips than if I would have shoved preflop

 

[pigpen02]

What is the best thing that could happen if you shove all in pre-flop? You get one caller and you have about an 83% chance to win. What is a bad thing that could happen? You get four callers with a variety of hands like KQ, small pair, suited connectors, unsuited connectors. Now you have closer to a 40% chance to win and your tournament life is in jeopardy. Unless you are very short stacked an all in pre-flop with any hand is a poor choice IMO.

 

[Omri266]

I prefer go all in before the flop. but it depands who are the players with you.
While I am playing with my group they are very aggressive, so I love to limp from early position and 99% of the time someone re-raise me, so a re-raise from me and he always call, because it's "a good value".

It can be difficult to play a post flop with AA, because you believe your cards and you can lose a lot of money if you reach the showdown.

 

[romych007]

if the stack is large , it is best to play the hand , to collect the greatest benefit

 

[Syltan]

Draw. In the tournament there are no such hands preflop.

 

[Bogdan Adrian]

All-in preflop it's quite risky when in early stages because not many people will call you and you can end up just collecting the blinds. All-in preflop in general works in late stages when average is under 30-20 BB

 

[johnsonrod]

I have a completely different philosophy than most when it comes to MTT's and most will completely disagree with it but aside from that..........
I would ship it every single time. I would rather collect the blinds than have 2nd best hand post flop because that's the worst hand in poker!
I play to win tourneys not min cash. my time is too important to spend hour upon hour playing TAG when I already know the chances of going deep is very small.
Ten years ago poker was different despite what the TAG players want to believe. Hyper aggressive players go deep or go home. I like most usually go home. But when I go deep it far exceeds any min cashes that I could rack up by playing TAG.

 

[K1CRA]

Pff , easy raise on UTG.. You can slow play hands like AA, KK, QQ and other pairs when UTG raise you and when you are in MP for example, that's my play, just try it

 

[chloebrand]

It all depends on your read on the table, and what your table image is. It is always a bad idea to limp in with premium hands, it gives your opposition the chance to play against you with an unlimited range. Any 2 cards can beat AA 35% of the time.

 

[Icebear847]

I have, to best of my memory, never limped with AA early and have it turn out well. Most players, even the fish consider that you have an ace. It's like assumption number #1.

 

[kasper447]

To test how the standard you play your aces, look at these standard situations drawing AA:
Preflop: Open-raise, in the presence of limpers - reraise 4-5BB.Esli met raise, three-bet answer. If your open-raise three-bet, 4-bet up to 25BB. Why not call a shove them? If an opponent calls your 4-bet, you direct road to the all-Inu any flop (of course, if your stack - not 450BB).
Post-flop: in most situations - a continuation bet. If the stack does not exceed two pots - go all-in. If you play with an answering machine, you can safely bet for value, up to raise his hand. If it is an aggressive player - with the expectation of the check raise on his part.
In any case, Keep an eye to the nit and tight players. They just will not raise the river, be careful. Sometimes there are situations where a pair of aces and a better throw.

 

[jmunzz1116]

Nice thread, Online for whatever reason my aces always get crushed so I won't lie I am scared of pocket aces. I always get hit big with them. I raise 2.5-3xx bb utg.

 

[YtM]

How do you play AA when you get it under the gun? I have seen two distinct styles of play on this. One is to do a big bet (5x BB or greater) and hope that you get only one caller. The other is to simply call, hope somebody else raises before the round is done, and then you shove all-in on top of the raiser. If you don't get an opportunity to shove before the flop, then you're in trouble and should probably just try to get out of the hand for as cheaply as possible (unless you hit a set on the flop).

It all depends on what amount you are playing for imo. I find at the micro stakes it is easier to limp and then call or reraise any raisers. Usually this way you can isolate 1 player - 2 players and take down the pot.