AA in early position

[rokstedy]

The last 3 times I've had AA in early position early in a tourney, I've opted for the limp re-raise tactic. The situations were as follows:

A: I limped with AA, JJ in late position raised to 200 and I pushed in. JJ hit a set and I'm out.

B: I limped with AA, TT raises it to 80, T7s calls and I raise behind to 500. Both players call, the flop is Jxx with two hearts and both players call my all in bet of 900 on the flop. T7s hits a heart and I'm out.

C: I limped with AA, xx raises to 80, UTG limper calls and I raise behind to 500. xx folds and AQo calls. Flop is JTx rainbow. Again I push for 900 and AQ hits a K on the river and I'm out.

I'm not here to tell bad beat stories. My question is...should I be reading anything into this? I'm 0-3 in slowplaying AA early in a SnG. Should I simply be raising normally with these or did I play them well and just got unlucky? I think that in the case of JJ and AQ I was dead before I put my first chips in the pot. Thoughts?

[HighestCard]

I dont see much of a problem, you got your chips all in when you were ahead with AA. There's not much more you can do than that, so in essence, this is a bad beat post... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Dan Rutter]

If people are calling your limp-raises of such huge amounts that is a good thing. You limp for $30, Player A makes it $80, Player B calls $80, so there is $190 in the pot, if you are playing with people who will then put another $420 I would do that all day I guess. I probably would not limp raise such a large amount because I would be worried I would be eliminating action.

[CaptainNoBeard]

limping with aces, with the intention of limp re-raising, should be a tactic used to prevent opponents from reading you easily (improve your shania), but it shouldn't become a habit. under most circumstances, the play with optimal +ev by raising with the aces.

as for the hands, you got your money in with the best of it. sleep easy.

[rokstedy]

[ QUOTE ]
I dont see much of a problem, you got your chips all in when you were ahead with AA. There's not much more you can do than that, so in essence, this is a bad beat post... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I only post the scenarios to find out if there's a way I could avoid going broke in those hands. I used to be pretty good at SnG's, but my game has faded of late (too much time at the cash tables), and I just want to plug a few leaks.

[rokstedy]

[ QUOTE ]
If people are calling your limp-raises of such huge amounts that is a good thing. You limp for $30, Player A makes it $80, Player B calls $80, so there is $190 in the pot, if you are playing with people who will then put another $420 I would do that all day I guess. I probably would not limp raise such a large amount because I would be worried I would be eliminating action.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's encouraging then. The thing I feared is I'm giving people the opportunity to get lucky. But in the end, I guess I'm getting all my chips and others too in the hand in a dominating position and that's about all I can ask.

[rokstedy]

[ QUOTE ]
limping with aces, with the intention of limp re-raising, should be a tactic used to prevent opponents from reading you easily (improve your shania), but it shouldn't become a habit. under most circumstances, the play with optimal +ev by raising with the aces.

[/ QUOTE ]

It should be noted that these three hands occured over the course of 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure that's not a habitual behaviou /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[lastchance]

I think just raising up is better in most cases without a read on a table if it's aggressive.

No reason to limp behind limpers, and you want to get your money in preflop with a good preflop hand.

[rokstedy]

[ QUOTE ]
I think just raising up is better in most cases without a read on a table if it's aggressive.

No reason to limp behind limpers, and you want to get your money in preflop with a good preflop hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

All three of these occured in round 2 of step tourneys on gaming club where there is usually always action early. I was certain I was going to get action in each case.

[ILuVPuPPiEs]

They raise...
- Call attention to your hand because of the limp/re-raise and everyone bails when they miss their set.

They limp...
- 5 callers and you have to muck your hand because the pot is worth 120 and he bet 150 into a JQK flop
- Going broke in an unraised pot...enough said

Just raise to like 75, if you get enough callers you can check/raise a good looking flop
If not you can just bet out and see what happens from there


...its late so I have no idea what I just said nor do i know if it is even remotely on the right track..srry

[Karak567]

Posting results is not going to get you good responses.

There is no reason to post those results.

That said - I really hate limping with aces in EP.

[HoldingFolding]

in general, my problem with this tactic is it's so obvious. EP Limp + Raise + Reraise = AA especially at the 22s. If someone can put you on an exact hand, the hand becomes very easy to play.

This did not happen in your case, in fact it seems to have worked perfectly - hence other posters' accusations that you are using the old back door bad beat wheeze.

[Karak567]

[ QUOTE ]
in general, my problem with this tactic is it's so obvious. EP Limp + Raise + Reraise = AA especially at the 22s. If someone can put you on an exact hand, the hand becomes very easy to play.


[/ QUOTE ]

While I agree that raising AA in EP is the right play to disguise the strength of your hand and get action but not too much - I disagree that a limp re-raise means AA.

Often you will see a limp push with hands as crappy as 22. Some players are obsessed with "pushing small edges" and "coinflips" and don't realize that they will probably be a 20 % underdog and not a 55 % favorite.

[Seth Money]

I like the post but I don't warrant its value to what you are asking. You played your hand 3 different ways and you went 0-3. Sometimes that happens, you just have to roll with hte punches. But you have to at some point let it go, I don't remember how many times I have had mine cracked and at the same time I don't write down everytime my K10suited gets cracked because to me it is the same. A hand is a hand. You got in with the best of it, thats all you can ever ask, right? Percentages were in your favor all 3 times and eventually, long term, those numbers will move in your favor.