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

[Sil3ntness]

If you do limp and get cracked, don't cry about it. I hate it when people do that.

Yeah I limped KK UTG and everybody knew what I had LOL. Everyone folded, but obviously the BB checked the flop. BB hit me with the BB special (flopped trips)

I refused to believe they had trips and I got knocked out of the tournament. We were both deep stacked too so it was a fatal mistake on my part. When I got knocked out I didn't cry though. All I said was "I deserved that"

I DID! If you limp in with AA/KK don't whine and be prepared to sadly fold it when you know you're beat.

 

[Runanhyde]

So as a general rule limping UTG with pocket KK is a mistake?

 

[horizon12]

So as a general rule limping UTG with pocket KK is a mistake?

Basically it will be a mistake, because the regulars will exploited it and you missed a ton of value if not raise....

 

[SloPowers]

In my personal experience, I rarely if ever slow play a big pair! I have had too many villains flop sets, straights or flushes. In the long run, making them pay to see the flop is the best play for me - win or not!

 

[YouPay4MyCrack]

Actually you REDUCE value by doing this. What you want more than anything is to go heads up against another "strong" hand (of course second best to yours) so your hand maximizes its odds of holding up - its best opportunity is versus only one opponent. See how AA looks below versus number of opponents:

Versus 1 = 85% to win
Versus 2 = 73% to win
Versus 3 = 64% to win
Versus 4 = 56% to win
Versus 5 = 49% to win

Notice the biggest dip is from 1 to 2 opponents. You get 5 callers and now the field is the favorite to win the hand. To make matters even worse you see a flop of 782 with two hearts. Would someone with 78s call your limp? ABSOLUTELY! Would someone with 22 call your limp? ABSOLUTELY! Would someone with two hearts (with the intent of chasing a flush) call your limp? ABSOLUTELY! You have no idea where you are at in the hand. You can avoid that easily with a little 2 1/2 BB raise from early position.

I agree, if you just limp and nobody hits. Nobody calls your c-bet, if they do hit, you probably didn't and they call your c-bet and win. If you raise pre-flop people still call, then whether you hit or miss on the flop, your c-bet looks much more intimidating. If I see my friends limping with cards like that we have a sit down lol.

 

[LinkornU]

Like a lot of people have already said - NEVER do this. I also thought that doing such a move would help me to earn more money, BUT many times I ended up seeing extremely dangerous flops in which I either kept going and lost or had to fold (better option). So always bet. By doing this you're also able to put your opponents on more or less definite hand.

 

[billyboy313]

seems like everytime i limp with AA or KK it never works out leave to many people in if no one raises ... its great if someone rasies for ya

 

[JamesMoroski]

Limping AA or KK from EP is risk/reward

Again if you are willing to fold them post flop even if your AA or KK is top pair then yeah limp em but if you dont have the ability to fold them post dont bother limping them cuz you will eventually lose

 

[suvorov17]

So you can play sometimes.You can make soy game more varied and unpredictable

 

[nykaktak]

well, here is a controversial issue,it depends on what stage of the game,but in the late stage of the game limp with AA or KK that's good,because the probability that after you player will raise high,then it will fall into the trap)

 

[suvorov17]

It's good if the aggressor in late position.So you can play the hand more profitable

 

[Frontiere]

dont limp

When you limp in early position with AA or KK you give a big chance to small blind and BB to get you out of tournament , because SB have A 4 , and BB have 4 9.You give him chance to see the flop , and if flop is ,lets say, 4 9 J , you are in postion to not fold , and BB got you. If you raise BB will be fold.

 

[AtiFCOD]

This is why I love poker. One cannot say limping with AA/KK good or not. There are situations where limping isnt a good thing and there are situations where limping is ok.
On the other hand it's always very hard to fold aces postflop since this hand is still very strong (easy lose to sets, two pairs)....plus pro players never limp with them. So officially I would say limping is a mistake...but I do it sometimes.

 

[A92]

Yeah thats the only time I would limp in. I usually raise a few times what the BB is pre-flop to mnimize the playing field. I'd rather reduce my ROI than get cracked by one of several limpers.

 

[zam220]

I'm with AA.KK,go all-in,at the micro and low limits they al most always colorout

 

[iflylight]

depends if you are short stacked you want action but if you arent you should raise so you dont get more hands to call giving you less equity so you should raise usually

 

[Geldi]

With AA or KK, I advise to go all-in immediately as it is often lost with AA and KK just the opponent gains 222 or two pairs JJ and 33 .... and always lost today with AA at 888 ... so I advise immediately raises all-in

 

[bambiswag]

I tend to limp AA / KK, but after reading this, it seems it could be risky. So maybe I'll get a little more aggressive to get the 7/2 offsuite BB player to fold and not have them get a 7 2 & J on the flop

 

[ghOst]

Never limp. Always raise. Raise x4 BB at least. If reraised, just 3 bet and so on

 

[tj6073]

I would say sometimes, but rarely. It is important to get maximum value from every hand. Again, so many factors to consider. Cash game or tournament (what stage of play?)? What is your table image currently? Stack size? What is the action like at this table? The more information you have, the better decisions you can make!

 

[Sil3ntness]

Depends on how aggressive the other players are too. I was watching a old clip of Scott Seiver limping AA UTG, Jonathan Duhamel completed his blind from the SB with Q10o, & Vanessa Selbst had AJo and decided to shove over the limp & SB for 25 BBs!!!

Seiver shoved over the 25 BB shove & made out like a bandit. Duhamel only lost half a blind and got out of the way.

That's a perfect limping scenario. A terrible scenario is that nobody raises the pot and you're stuck seeing the flop with 2+ people. If the flop is 100% wet be prepared to fold your hand or get stacked due to slowplaying AA/KK.

 

[n3rv]

I don't think it is a very good idea for a few main reasons:

1. If you limp UTG, then 3-bet, you have just told the whole table exactly what cards you have
2. If you limp and the whole table calls, you lose an incredible amount of value for post flop play, both in pot size and equity of your hand vs multiple opponents
3. This will only ever work against specific player types, the kind of player types who could also call 5x raises from UTG anyway so you might as well isolate them and get full value with the betting lead
4. If you are looking to entice or trap specific opponents to make mistakes or come over the top you can do it with a smaller raise, so you don't need to limp and potentially let everyone else into the pot with any two cards
5. You are out of position and should just be thankful for anything holding up - tricky plays are better in position

 

[solargarlic]

I don't think so

In my opinion limping with either but certainly with AA can be devastating and usually is for me. I used to try to throw in a limp with it every once in a while but then I kept getting burned. It does depend on your situation though I will still limp if in front of a very aggressive loose player that pushes frequently preflop. That is still iffy though in my book use extreme caution and expect suck outs.

 

[kworm2013]

to most people ,I found limp with AA KK ,that is no value.Just do it ,you will get it.

 

[MediaBLITZ]

I tend to limp AA / KK, but after reading this, it seems it could be risky. So maybe I'll get a little more aggressive to get the 7/2 offsuite BB player to fold and not have them get a 7 2 & J on the flop

Now you're getting it - you want the guy with AK in the hand, not the 4 other guys with 72o, 78, J9, 34, etc.