what to do with KK/AA after a min raise?

[captZEEbo1]

In the early stages of an sng, I find myself consistently having this problem with KK or AA. Someone raises from 15 to 30, and there are a few callers, When I reraise with AA or KK, I'm basically telling them I have AA or KK, and that they either need to hit a set to bust me, or just fold now. So I don't really know how to play this hand. The only time I find it profitable is when some chump calls my reraise with a terrible hand, but that's not too common.

What's a good reraise to....90? 150? 210? Keep in mind there are a few callers after the raise from 15 to 30. I want to get some action with my premium pair, but I don't want to give them odds to make me broke. This is at the $50 buyin on party, by the way.

[spentrent]

I'd bump it up to 120. With all those callers in front of you, you're either gonna take the pot right now -- which is fine -- or you'll get a caller with a AK or a pocket pair. If two of you see the flop, bet the pot to figure out where you are. If your opponent plays back, oh well, [censored] happens.

BTW I don't think that consistently finding yourself in that situation is a problem. QQ or KK might push and you'll coast into the money. Worst case is folding AA on the flop. Big deal.

[skirtus]

I play the $10s and I would push AA, KK , or QQ in this situation every time. I amazed how many times I get called.

[spentrent]

If the $50's are like that I'm gonna have to start playing under bankroll!

[Phill S]

if its the first level then pushing isnt too bad (especially on party as the stacks are so short). you may look like a crazy and get called. if not its not a problem. people wont take too much notice on it for future image so dont worry bout that (ie by the bubble youll have established your solid image already, theyll forget this push).

if its level 2+3 you should at least pot it. say a raise from 30-60, called in two spots, plus blinds. its 225 in the pot. on party if this represents a large portion of your stack, >1/3, then just push. if its on a site with deeper stacks, pokerroom or stars for example then the pot is about right.

the reason you dont push level 2 and 3 is that youve spent 10+ hands folding and establishing a tight image. pushing will get many people to fold, a good play will prolly spot it and put down JJ or less and AK or less. therefor you only gain if they have QQ, which is unlikely.

level 4 onward should be easy enough as its covered quite widely on here.

Phill
ps, please note this hasnt been worked out mathematically. its my strategy, based widely on a lot of play and a bit of thought, but i dont claim its perfect. others will likely disagree.

[Phill S]

something i forgot to add. if your very late position, and an early position min-raise get everyone out, so much that it wont go any more than 5 handed you can just call. its risky, however having myself been busted by people doing this i can tell you its damn effective. just take care with the BB and flops that have two or more cards ten+.

to cut down on this risk you can just mini-raise. this should cut the field down and the early raiser might want to find out 'where he is'. call him, he'll see it as weakness.

Phill

[citanul]

Raise.

Thankfully, your opponents are not going to put you on exactly AA or KK. They just aren't that reasoning, and you probably should be raising with more than that anyway.

Also, particularly with a miniraiser, these guys often have a real hand and you might be able to get his whole stack in preflop.

What's the difference here if it was a normal raise and 3 or 4 callers? I mean really. 15 chips x 4 players? Do what you would have done with a standard raise and a few callers, but with the knowledge that you might stack off the guy who miniraised because they have a tendency to be people "trapping."

With a raise to 30, 3 callers, and the blinds, I'd probably pop it to 150-200. Tending to be the lower.

I mean, what's the other plan, calling?

citanul

[adanthar]

I raise to 125, also in the 50's.

What are you going to do, call and let 55 suck out when he hits? Because I'll call any minraise with any pair for exactly that reason and I've taken the stack of many a slowplaying overpair.

[tallstack]

Early in the game, I would almost always re-raise to 'double the pot'. Prior to following this rule, I found I tended to under-raise when there were a lot of limpers. You may not want to follow this exactly, but it usually gives you a quick estimate of an appropriate raise amount.

Dave S

[citanul]

egad. double the pot?
you'd really raise to about 300 here? at the 50s, i just think that's saying "ok, i'll take the blinds, unless i'm up against AA or QQ or sometimes AK or JJ." you can't possibly be this scared of playing post flop?

and i mean, i hate playing post flop... with a raise of say, a normal sane amount you can get more than just the blinds often, and sometimes your opponents will hit a hand that they'll decide to pay you off with, without having you beaten.

citanul

[tallstack]

I agree its a large raise, but I don't think its our of the range of sanity. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif