Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

5-5 NLHE. I have 2000+ and cover everyone involved in this hand.

Opener for 20. Two or three callers, one of whom (in CO) is a very strong player. I'm in the SB w/ two black Aces. I make it something like 120 to go. I'm capable of making a good sized raise here w/ a relatively wide range of hands and the better players are aware of this.

Tricky (but loose and not terribly solid), aware, aggressive player in BB (1200ish) ponders a few seconds and raises me about 500 more. If he puts me on a steal, he doesn't need much of a hand to do thi. He now has bet about half his stack. Folded back to me.

I pushed. Should I have considered calling? If so, why?

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

I would just call and checkraise him all in the flop almost all the time.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

he has got half his money in already and will call with most anything. so stick it in. also he is getting closer to the fair odds to draw out and you dont want to give that to him with a hand he wont go past the flop with.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

with a mediocre hand, i think he is more likely to go all in here than on the flop.

also, he is almost correct to call your all in anyway since he is getting 3:1, so you don't mind terribly if he folds. i would only slowplay a big pair when the money is considerably deeper relative to the raise.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

[ QUOTE ]
I would just call and checkraise him all in the flop almost all the time.

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Huh? If I call, there's about 1300 in the pot. He has something like 600 left. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Seriously, I know what you're saying. Just switch "checkraise" to "check-call" above and that's pretty much what I was considering.

The sick results
 

That's what I thought. I figured it's one of three scenarios here:

a) He has a pretty crappy hand that will fold to a raise. I may only get more money from this hand if he outflops me, so I might as well get him to fold right now.

b) He has a reasonable hand like AK or TT that will call here but might escape post-flop. I'd like to get the money in right now and run it.

c) He has a big hand like QQ/KK/AA and it doesn't really matter since all the money's going in either now or later unless just maybe he has QQ and the flop is AKx.

So I pushed. He called immediately.

Flop KKx. Turn x. River J. He, of course, had pocket Jacks. Oh well.

Of course it wouldn't change the outcome any, but I was thinking that maybe there was some rationale to just calling pre-flop since he'll perhaps auto-bet his last 600 w/ some hands that might fold to a raise.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

What Ray said. After you call he knows you have a big hand anyway, and some flops might let him get away from his weaker hands or at least kill your action.

I'd only think about getting tricky if he was as deep as you were (i.e. I could throw another pot-sized raise at him now or put in a big checkraise on a safe flop.) And maybe not even then; 700 in uncontested profit isn't bad if he folds.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

I quite like the plan of calling now and setting him in on any flop. Here's why.

Everybody knows that everybody expects this guy to call if you push in. So pushing in is the move of a hand that does not want a fold. Calling and betting the flop looks much more like a vulnerable hand to me, so might get a call out of him where he would have folded preflop.

Calling and checking looks like a slowplay to my eyes. With JJ I might check it back and now you've given me four free cards to hit my set...

Guy.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

Oh yeah, by the way...

A similar situation came up in a tournament last night which made me almost fall off my chair.

I just called a multi-way pot on the button with pocket tens. Flop AT9, cutoff ( a local pro) bets out, a large overbet of the pot, a third of my stack. I call. Turn is another T which I have to admit I quite like. He makes another reasonable bet. I think about whether to call or move in the rest of the chips, count my stack down and realise my all-in raise will be only 400 more into a pot of 13000 or so, so I just move them in, knowing he will have to call. He folds.

Huh?

Guy.

Re: Any merit to calling big raise pre-flop w/ AA? 5-5 NLHE
 

[ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, by the way...

A similar situation came up in a tournament last night which made me almost fall off my chair.

I just called a multi-way pot on the button with pocket tens. Flop AT9, cutoff ( a local pro) bets out, a large overbet of the pot, a third of my stack. I call. Turn is another T which I have to admit I quite like. He makes another reasonable bet. I think about whether to call or move in the rest of the chips, count my stack down and realise my all-in raise will be only 400 more into a pot of 13000 or so, so I just move them in, knowing he will have to call. He folds.

Huh?


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Perhaps its time you considered that you may have a fairly obvious tell. My advice, do not bring Oreo cookies to the casino with you.