Aces, early position, final 20% of field remaining.

[erhaab1965]

just played in my local cardroom and had Aces, early position, final 20 % of players left, 10% get paid. It's a slow structured deepstack game and the average number of big blinds is above 40. I have 92k, blinds are 2/4k. The table is quite passive so most raises are met with plenty of folds. UTG limps I limp aces, button limps, both blinds come in. I know I say the table is passive, but I limp hoping for a raise at some stage. Flop J26 rainbow. Check, bet of 4.5k, flat call from UTG. I foolishly bang it hoping to take it down now! All fold to UTG who calls with 26 which holds up and leaves me crippled. I'm out soon after. Almost the same happened last week and another time before, at roughly the same stages of the tournaments. Question, with Aces should I be limping at this stage? My thinking is that a raise will just win me the blinds and antes. In the long run is it profitable to see all 5 community cards with one or more opponents? Aces are strong enough 80% of the time, so did I do much wrong? If I'm going to take down a pot without having to show my cards then I can do that with any 2 cards, right?

[Warbirds]

Re: Aces, early position, final 20% of field remaining. IMHO: Given the type of play as described I see nothing wrong with calling a limper with AA as you don't want to win just 3-4 blinds with them. This with the idea (as you had) to take it down early (on the flop) and not let everyone see all 5 board cards though. You can't get a drier flop than J26 rainbow, the odds of someone flopping 2 pair or trips are low and I think your play was good there, just very unlucky. Fred