I'm having a lot of trouble in situations with AA and KK PF

[Karak567]

The main problem I am having is I don't know how much to re-raise a raise ahead of me while holding AA or KK.

If he raises and it's folded to me, I'll make a decent sized re-raise, but not push, right?

However, if he raises and there are a LOT of callers, any decent re-raise to eliminate the callers is about 1/3 to 1/2 of my stack, so I must push?

Also if there is a re-raise of the raise already ahead of me, we need to assume he will a call a push, correct?

Here is an example of such a hand:

***** Hand History for Game 2002433874 *****
NL Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:11933743 Level:1 Blinds(10/15) - Thursday, May 05, 08:53:52 EDT 2005
Table Table 39778 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: erb4321 ( $800 )
Seat 5: JayMark111 ( $800 )
Seat 7: awinner222 ( $800 )
Seat 4: jwetherb ( $800 )
Seat 2: calamere ( $800 )
Seat 1: obigb ( $800 )
Seat 3: Guesstalot ( $800 )
Seat 8: arbez54 ( $800 )
Seat 10: gypsy1333 ( $800 )
Seat 9: valtazar72 ( $800 )
Trny:11933743 Level:1
Blinds(10/15)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to erb4321 [ Ad As ]
arbez54 folds.
valtazar72 raises [30].
gypsy1333 folds.
obigb raises [45].
calamere folds.
Guesstalot folds.
jwetherb calls [45].
JayMark111 folds.
>You have options at Table 35325 Table!.
erb4321 is all-In [790]
awinner222 folds.
calamere: oh no
calamere: aces
>You have options at Table 35261 Table!.
valtazar72 will be using his time bank for this hand.
>You have options at Table 35261 Table!.
>You have options at Table 35030 Table!.
valtazar72 folds.
obigb folds.
jwetherb folds.
erb4321 does not show cards.
>You have options at Table 35030 Table!.
erb4321 wins 935 chips
>You have options at Table 35261 Table!.

[Phil Van Sexton]

[ QUOTE ]
However, if he raises and there are a LOT of callers, any decent re-raise to eliminate the callers is about 1/3 to 1/2 of my stack, so I must push?

[/ QUOTE ]

Normally, you don't want to bet 1/3 of your stack because you are pot committing yourself. Since you won't be able to fold if re-raised, you should just push in the first place to maximize your folding equity.

When you have AA, you don't mind pot committing yourself. You can bet 1/2 your stack now, and 1/2 on the flop. 1/3 now and 2/3s on the flop. 1/5 now, 1/3 on the flop, and the rest on the turn, etc, etc.

Particularly at a 10/1: get a lot of your money in preflop, then get the rest in postflop.

In your specific example at a 10/1, I'd raise to 200 and probably push on any flop.

[jacks321]

In this particular situation, you don't mind pot committing yourself, but pushing all in to a standard raise preflop will almost always give you the same result. Raising to around 200 will probably get you heads up or against two opponents. Barring a horrific flop, try to get all your chips in there instead.

[Cleveland Guy]

your ideas are pretty right, but you are taking them out of context.

In this case we have a min raise, and a min re-raise, so no one is anywhere near pot committed. You are blowing them out of the water with your HUGE raise.

If the first raise was to 50, and the second raise to 200, now pushing all in makes more sense.

I hope that helps you see the difference.