How to play AA

[AJ]

Saw this article, and thought it might be a good starting point for a debate about the best way to play AA in SnG vs cash situations

How to Play Pocket Aces

by Randy Ray

I was involved in a discussion on a poker forum once about how to play pocket aces preflop in a no limit Texas holdem game. I usually limp with AA from early position in a no limit Texas holdem game, because I want someone with a pair of 10's or better to raise behind me. Then I can put them all-in or make a huge reraise on them. My friends at the poker forum thought I was crazy, but I still think I'm right. I've seen poker authors say that pocket aces more or less play themselves because they're such a strong hand. But all hands could stand up to some discussion and thought, and even though AA is going to only come up 1 time out of every 221 hands, it's still worth talking about. I'll present some varying opinions about how to play AA below. (Since I've already shared my opinion in the preceding paragraph.) John Vorhaus - Slowplay Aces, Go To Hell John Vorhaus is one of my favorite poker writers. I've read all of his Killer Poker books, and I plan to re-read them all again this year. Over on Ultimate Bet, he wrote some preflop strategy articles, and one of them is specifically about playing big pairs preflop in no limit Texas holdem. Vorhaus offers 3 reasons NOT to slowplay aces:

• When you slowplay pocket aces, you let bad hands see the flop cheap. It's hard to put him on a hand, and most people, having pocket aces, are going to play the flop aggressively no matter how their opponent bets. Since you let him see the flop cheap with his bad preflop hand, you're likely to get all your chips in and be beaten.
• Pocket aces are a favorite to win a pot against 1, 2 or 3 other players. But if you've got 4 people or more in the pot with you, pocket aces aren't a favorite anymore. Raising preserves your edge.
• Getting money into the pot by raising with your pocket aces is a likely way of making the pot big. If you don't put money into the pot, then you're not building the pot.

Vorhaus contends that the reason most players slowplay pocket aces is because they get emotional about them. They come along so rarely that players don't want to waste them by just stealing the blinds. And as Vorhaus points out, stealing the blinds is better than letting 78 suited into the pot cheap and having them take your whole stack. He also points out that if you don't get any action when you raise with pocket aces, it's possible that you're not raising often enough preflop with other kinds of hands. Harrington on Pocket Aces Dan Harrington's advice on poker strategy in Harrington on Hold'em is aimed at tournament play, but looking at his thoughts on pocket aces preflop is worthwhile for ring games too. Harrington suggests that if you're playing online and no one has entered the pot yet, you should always raise with AA, KK or QQ preflop. His opinion is that slowplaying aces is a way to prevent players from getting a read on you, and players online don't meet up often enough for that to matter. He suggests that in real tournaments you raise with these hands in this situation 80% of the time and just limp in 20% of the time. A lot of the better players online track their opponents' play pretty closely though, so I think it's not a bad idea to vary your play with these hands from time to time too. don't think you're giving up much by limping 20% of the time online either. Harrington's a big fan of varying your bet sizes too. He suggests that 35% of the time you raise 3 times the big blind, 35% of the time raising 2 times the big blind, 15% of the time raising 2 times the big blind, and 15% of the time raising 5 times the big blind. I think this is excellent advice, although it runs counter to a lot of the online wisdom which says that by always making the same size raise preflop you're not giving anything away. To me, varying your raise sizes is a better way of not giving anything away. Harrington says that going all-in preflop with AA should be a rare move, since you do want to win some money, not just the blinds. All in bets discourage action. The only time you might make this move is if you were at an active table where you had already seen some all in bets get called, and even then, you wouldn't make this move a lot. In late position, Harrington suggests not raising more than 3 times the big blind with your AA. You want to look like you're trying to steal the big blind. I think if you've had some action before you, like a raise and a re-raise, going all in preflop is a good move though. Phil Hellmuth on AA In Hellmuth's book Play Poker Like the Pros, he gives different advice to players with different levels of experience. His advice to beginners is to go all in preflop with AA, KK, QQ, or AK. He does discuss trying to trap other players with pocket aces, but he also points out that it's a risky proposition that might result in a lot of disappointment. It's a little unclear in this section of the book whether Hellmuth means you should raise with AA with the willingness to go all in after a re-raise, or if he means you should just push no matter what. (I say this because later in the section he mentions having someone re-raise behind you, even though he said you should push all-in in the preceding paragraph. If you're all-in, you can't really be re-raised afterward, hence the uncertainty.) I'm not sure that pushing all in every time you have 1 of these hands is the best strategy preflop. I think it will discourage action and leave you winning some very small pots. Doyle Brunson's Super/System Advice on AA and KK In early position, Doyle Brunson suggests limping in with AA or KK. He also says that if he's in middle position, and no one else has come in, he'll play it the same way. In late position he'll raise with them, hoping that someone will re-raise him and he can put them all-in. If other players have come in or bet, then he raises with AA or KK.

[happyhornet]

Re: How to play AA I think there is a lot to be said for limping in the early stages of tournament or a SNG. My take on it would be positional. If I was UTG, I would probably raise 3xBB. My reasoning here is that at the level I play (low stakes) if the UTG limps, it sems to give everybody carte blanche to follow, and I want action but not 7 callers. If I was in mid position, I would limp, and hope for a raise from the button. If I am in late position, i'll vary between limping and raising, depending on how many have entered the pot. In the middle/latter part of a tourney/SNG, I would almost never limp in with any hand, least of all Aces. In cash games, as a rule of thimb, I always raise with Aces. I'll be interested to see what established cash players would do.

[kevshat]

Re: How to play AA Bin em. They'll only get cracked ;)

[Dodger]

Re: How to play AA Peculiar article! ''35% of the time raising 2 times the big blind, 15% of the time raising 2 times the big blind''...aren't they the same thing? Throw in the confusion over Hellmuth's advice, mix all that with a raiser and a limper...you end up with every way to play AA...leaving us all none the wiser. In internet poker, where many are allegedly playing four or five games at once, you haven't got time to think about all the possible plays so you will play by instinct and gut feeling. My own feelings on the matter are that you should never have a set strategy of how to play ANY hand, let alone AA. If you stick to the same play every time then you are going to become vulnerable to any player who is tracking your play...if you know exactly how you play then they will too. Mix it up and keep 'em guessing...it's the only way!

[BAM]

Re: How to play AA Raise the standard for the table at the time there is no point in getting clever with aces, if you dont get any action then so be it move onto the next hand. The only position I would limp is in a cash game and I have them in the SB and it is folded around to me.

[2damnhype]

Re: How to play AA At the low STT levels i play at ($3 - $15) if in the first few hands of the STT I get Aces then i will raise every time - i tend to raise 5 x BB, or the pot, whichever is the greater amount. You quite often get reraised and 2 (or sometimes 3) of you get all the chips in pre-flop - then depending on how the cards fall you are either looking for another game, or have got a big enough stack to keep quiet for a bit. The range of hands that people are prepared to commit with early in these tournaments at these levels is simply shocking.

[SteveO]

Re: How to play AA In the early stages of Sit n go's on Prima limp in early position and usually someone will raise, push all in over the top of them and 90% of the time they call and will bust you:lol. Only joking of course there's chance you'll lose but they always seem to call.

[glceud]

Re: How to play AA Asuming we are talking NL the correct answer is- there is no right or wrong way to play aces. I had started to explain why but I gave up after about 2000 words and realising another 20,000 would be needed. However if you get them first hand in a 20,000 runner freeroll, all in and hope enough of the players at the table want to play the double up or bust game

[PPP-PitBoss]

Re: How to play AA 100% agree with GLC. But I would add this. Saying that the best idea is to limp in EP with AA is a mistake, particularly at low stakes as there is a huge tendency for any or all players to limp in behind with any two cards. Now you are sitting there with pocket Aces and eight callers... what ya gonna do? In my opinion it is entirely dependant on your opponents, it is risky to limp in EP with Aces unless you have a plan. A good time to do this if you have two or more very agressive players in front of you. That way you can be sure of getting more value on the hand by r-raising. Without this information you run the risk for facing too many players with live cards going into the flop so sans this information I would most definitely be raising.

[SteveO]

Re: How to play AA

100% agree with GLC. But I would add this. Saying that the best idea is to limp in EP with AA is a mistake, particularly at low stakes as there is a huge tendency for any or all players to limp in behind with any two cards.

Of course if you limp there's a tendency for others to limp and then you don't know where you are, if this happens then you must be prepared to lay them down after the flop. I limp quite often with aces in early position hoping for a raise behind. Quite often even when you do raise from EP you'll get multiple callers and if you raise too much you'll frighten them all off so I limp a large % of time.

[Tom Hedonist]

Re: How to play AA

100% agree with GLC. But I would add this. Saying that the best idea is to limp in EP with AA is a mistake, particularly at low stakes as there is a huge tendency for any or all players to limp in behind with any two cards. Now you are sitting there with pocket Aces and eight callers... what ya gonna do?

:ok What he said! In a full ring (10 seater) 0.05/0.10 NLHE cash game, I'm never limping with Aces. Standard raise is 5xBB + 1xBB for every limper. Re-raise any raise/re-raise. The play is so bad that people will often put you all-in pre-flop with hands like JT, AQ, 99, JK, Axs, 89s, 22 etc, etc. I find this play means sometimes the blinds and limpers all fold to me. Occasionally I'm outdrawn. But I'm rarely up against more than two callers to the flop. Playing full ring, you have to narrow down the field. At this level very few of the players are paying enough attention to pick up on whether I'm TAG/LAG/PASSIVE/MIXING IT RIGHT UP. Of course some are, but: (a) we're both looking to pick on the fish, (b) I'm noticing whether they're likely to raise 8xBB with TT from UTG.