AA preflop

[nietzreznor]

Pokerstars 1/2 full ring

I am SB with AA and around $200. Been at the table for an orbit, haven't played a hand yet. No real reads on anyone else either.

Folds around to CO ($200, posted BB) who raises to $9, Button reraises to $28, I...?


Call or raise (and if so, how much)? Never sure what to do in spots like this in full ring games...

[kitaristi0]

I put in a healthy raise to about $70. I'd rather that CO folded leaving me heads up.

[djoyce003]

i'd go ahead and reraise.....a flat call here out of the SB is really scary to the re-raiser.....a raise might not be as scary as a flat call honestly.

[dtbog]

[ QUOTE ]
Call or raise (and if so, how much)? Never sure what to do in spots like this in full ring games...

[/ QUOTE ]

I usually make a 3/4-pot - pot-sized raise here.

The fact that the CO is a poster makes it much more likely that he's just on a steal... and while Button is very likely to have a solid hand here, is it possible that he's on a resteal (with a hand as weak as KTs, for example).

If you don't raise, CO can call getting 3.5:1. Now you're OOP with a huge pot and AA, and you're getting stacked if either one of them flops well.

Reraise PF here... make it $75 and try to get one of them to commit his stack preflop. If you take it down here, that's fine with me.

[Robfish]

You should raise this. I would raise to about $80. Its likely to take the pot down there but if you just limp then CO might call for the pot odds and you will be acting out of position against 2 players with little idea as to what they hold.

If someone calls the $80 you know they will most likely have KK,QQ or possibly AK.

[nietzreznor]

Everyone seems to favor reraising. Which is what I did. I guess I was unsure because I thought it would make it obvious that I had AA/KK if I reraised huge out of the blinds. However, stacks were such that anyone who called withy a worse hand would be making a mistake, even if they knew what I had...

Anyways, I made it like $75 or so (don't have PT with me right now), CO folded, Button thought for a while and pushed, and my AA held up against his QQ.

[swolfe]

all-in

[nietzreznor]

[ QUOTE ]
all-in

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I would be interested in hearing why you think this is better than a pot-sized reraise.
One reason might be that if we want a hand like QQ/JJ to call, we have to make it look like how we would play AK or a small PP. If I wanted to "play back" with either of these, I would probably push.

[ QUOTE ]
all-in

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I don't mind an all-in here. In my live games, if anyone re-raises that big preflop (14 BB or so), and I push on top of them, they're probably going to call regardless of the fact that they know i'm tight.

Someone holding KK still has hopes that others have QQ, AKs, etc....

[kurto]

I don't mind either play. I often smoothcall if its going to be headsup to disguise my hand. If there's likely to be more people contesting the pot, then a big reraise is good.

[swolfe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
all-in

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I would be interested in hearing why you think this is better than a pot-sized reraise.
One reason might be that if we want a hand like QQ/JJ to call, we have to make it look like how we would play AK or a small PP. If I wanted to "play back" with either of these, I would probably push.

[/ QUOTE ]

i'd push because i'm not going to put in half my stack without getting the other half in and i'd rather not give someone a chance to call me and then fold to my flop push if they miss/call me if they hit.

KK will still call, QQ will probably still call (though they should fold regardless of what we raise to), AK may call thinking we have QQ. the reraiser has one of these hands 95% of the time.

[rikz]

A push will probably get more action from JJ to KK than a raise to 70 or 80 just because it is such an overbet that it looks like you really don't want them to call. So, they might be more inclided to think you have AK and are trying to push them off their JJ, QQ, or KK than that you really have the aces.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the re-raiser says something like, "Ok, it's coin flip time" then calls your all-in with QQ.

If you push, then I think you get at least one call from the re-raiser, and maybe even two calls here if you push preflop.