Short stacked in a tourney (not on the bubble), im never folding AA pre (probably just shipping it all in right there pre flop)....
Crazy preflop action in a cash game? I'm happily 4 or 5 bet shoving pre and being stacked by as many opponents that want to gamble and get lucky there. (Take my money!)
However,
As many have mentioned, there are times when it is 100% correct to fold AA even preflop...
Consider this....
You have no bank roll..... Saturday night
freerolls are your only chance to make something happen but they are so damn tough to win........especially at the start.......so much variance............
The hyper fast blind levels and short stack structure make them a heaven for the bingo fish who love playing high variance multiway all in poker constantly trying to win a huge pot by getting lucky with junk... This high variance can be tricky to navigate even even with AA....
Bullets keeps flying from the aggro fish you just doubled up after he called your preflop KK shove and spiked his Q 7 offsuit for 2 pair, the variance of luck keeps punishing...
After what feels like an hour long bloody and drawn out battle of blows, the fish slowly succumbs to the mathematical odds of eventual failure.... a strategical and prolonged gun fight between the surviving sharks and the trigger happy fish soon pays dividends, with the sharks each taking bites out of the villian one a time as there range allows, slowly crushing the fishes weak opening ranges.... Finally after what feels like an eternity, the fish drops his last "suicide jam" in frustration going all in pre with Q4 offsuit this time, before being 3bet jammed on by the player to his immediate left holding QQ.
Action folds to me, I fold 44 face up, The moment is sweet. His Q4 is no good....
At last, the fish is drawing dead.
As the satellite progresses, and the chip lead nears, soon i qualify to one of the prized tickets to the next step, then the next step, then the next....
Pretty soon its late, Hours are spent hours graduating several progressive satellite tournaments starting from a freeroll until finally making it to the final table sat bubble within reach of 1 of the 3 top prizes each a $109 Sunday million tourney tickets....
There's only 5 players remaining, 4th place pays something pathetic like $5......I'm comfortably in 2nd out of 5 just behind the chip leader.
3rd, 4th and 5th are neck and neck with about half my stack each but if i double any of them up i'll be the new short stack....
Once again i get dealt Aces (AcAd) from UTG this time...
I min raise open from UTG, CO 3 bet jams all in, BTN 4 bet reshoves, SB folds and BB (chip leader) pauses for a moment, before 5 bet re jamming all in... I tank for a minute, consider ICM and variance vs 3 opponents, then make the correct decision folding AcAd.
Opponents cards are on there back,
CO has QsQc, BTN has AhKh , BB has KsKc. Flop comes Qh Jh, 9h TURN Jd , river Kd
Ironically every other hand would have crushed me, not typical if i was heads up, but in this case even if i iso shoved pre flop and got called by only 1 other villains... the story would have taken a dark turn there.
Instead 2 short stacks busted the $0 bubble and the $5 bubble and folding AA was +EV $109 no regrets.