AA Hand

[Myst]

Party NL $10+1 2 table tournament. Early stages with blinds at 10/20 with both hero and button having ~1000 chips. Hero is UTG+1 and raises to 100 with AA. Folded around to button who reraises to 300.

My question is this: Should hero immediately push, or is there more money to be made by flatcalling the raise and later checkraising all in preflop? I feel that a reraise all in generally screams AA/KK, but is disgusing one's hand that important on Party's 10+1? Would the hand play differently on 200+15?

Thanks in advance.

[TheDrone]

I think that you can put most 10+1 players on a wider range of hands in this scenario than most 215+1 players. Push now and expect your opponent to call almost every time.

[willie24]

short answer is no, raise every time.

if you want, you can raise less than allin. of course you will go allin on the flop no matter what comes.

mini-reraising to 600 may be preferable depending on your opponent. many of them will be absolutely unable to fold to the 300 raise, and absolutely unable to fold to a 1/2 pot bet on the flop and an allin on the turn, no matter what comes. (even though they probably recognize that you have a very high pair). the miniraise thereby effectively forces them allin immediately.

against a strong player who is capable folding something like QQ to the mini-reraise, it may be best to just go allin immediately so as to semi-disguise your hand. (could logically include AK, AQ, pps down to about 88 or so).

do whichever you think is best. the pot is already so big relative to your stack that your opponent is going to have a hard time getting away no matter how much you raise.

i think just calling is wrong. it allows him to get away if he misses the flop, bluffs and is raised. it also gives him OK implied odds to hit a set. why do it?

[tallstack]

FWIW, I would almost never just call a raise with AA pre-flop, especially early. Your opponent has come close to committing himself (who knows what his standards for this really are) to any raise already, so I think there is little chance you will lose him with a re-raise. You may as well get the money when you know you have the advantage.

Also, I believe just calling the raise to 300 would make more sense if you had position after the flop. Then you could bet or raise the flop depending on how your opponent acts. Here, if your opponent does not bet the flop after you check then you are giving free cards all the way the turn. There is just no need to allow him this opportunity when your opponent has shown so much aggression already.

Dave S

[SuitedSixes]

I re-raise here (all-in if necessary). I don't mind advertising that I've got AA in this spot. At the early stages of the tournament I'm just looking for chips whether from a laydown or a loose call. In the later stages of the tournament, I would probably just call hoping to trap.