to raise or not to raise

[johnnyblaze]

We all know that raising AA preflop is usually the right thing to do, because it is a value bet when we have a significant edge. But say you are big blind in a limit game and you have more than 6 people that have already payed to see the flop. You could raise it, but most likely almost all of them will call you anyway, not to mention at this point you will be giving them sufficient pot odds to draw out to the river on you with any decent draw that they may have. Is this a situation where you should or should not raise?

[Evan]

Raise. Your equity is huge with AA preflop. Not raising there would be significantly sacrificing EV.

[eagletmr]

yes you should raise. Preflop, they don't have any odds to draw to anything yet, they haven't flopped their draws. If you put AA up against 6 other hands over and over again, AA will win a significant amount of time. So you should raise for value. You should also believe you play better than your opponents postflop, so you'll be able to lay down the AA later occasionally. RAISE RAISE RAISE

[Russ McGinley]

If you are unwilling to put money into the pot with the best possible hand then you really need to reevaluate your game. You should always be looking to get your money in with the best of it when you can. Playing AA slowly for deception is a different story, but you definitely raise.

[johnnyblaze]

oh i am more than willing to put it in. I was just curious if anyone had any ideas about how to keep them from getting cracked, because i was just wondering if you had ace ace in BB and lets say you dont raise pf, which is usually wrong to do so from what ive heard/read. If you wait for the flop and then bet or maybe checkraise it usually drives out the people with gutshots because thier pot odds are now half of what they would be if you did raise. ive also read that when you have a big pocket pair with only 2 outs it is best to have a limited field, now im not disagreeing that raising pf is a good option, but i was just thinking about this and wondering if this option is viable as well given your hand and relative position

[Evan]

In that case the pot would be 1/2 as big while your equity would not be twice as big. Do you see why this is a bad idea?

[johnnyblaze]

[ QUOTE ]
In that case the pot would be 1/2 as big while your equity would not be twice as big. Do you see why this is a bad idea?

[/ QUOTE ]

yes i understand where your coming from but now you cant protect your hand

[Chaos_ult]

There really isn't a way to protect your hand when you're in the BB with that many people in. You raise for value.

[johnnyblaze]

[ QUOTE ]
There really isn't a way to protect your hand when you're in the BB with that many people in. You raise for value.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah i guess the AA preflop raise IS standard.
Cards EV Count
AA 2.32 550,632
KK 1.67 551,878

and stats dont lie
p.s. i guess i could raise pf then checkraise the flop if it isnt too scary

[witeknite]

AA will get cracked sometimes. There's not much you can do about it PF in this situation. As others have said, it all comes down to equity. Do you push a good flush draw on the flop with 2+ people calling? It's for the same reason that you want to raise AA in the BB with 6 callers. Until the flop comes, AA is going to win against 6 others hands more than 6:1. This means you should be getting in all the money you can right here. You should be ecstatic that you have that many callers. Heck, maybe someone with KK, or better yet AK, is going for a LRR and you get the chance to cap it. You'd like to tie these people to the pot and get them to go all the way on a weak draw. Remeber, their 11:1 on a gut shot is your 1:10 for them to miss. If your not raising AA in this spot every time, you are missing money.

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Call when you have odds
Raise when you have equity
Never play weak-tight.

WiteKnite