Do we ever cold-call with aces...

[Saborion]

... and if so, is this a good spot to do it?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (9 handed) converter

MP3 (t790)
CO (t875)
Hero (t615)
SB (t460)
BB (t770)
UTG (t1565)
UTG+1 (t953)
MP1 (t815)
MP2 (t1157)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
<font color="666666">5 folds</font>, <font color="CC3333">CO raises to t150</font>, Hero calls t150, <font color="666666">2 folds</font>,

Flop: (t375) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
CO checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets t465 (All-In)</font>, CO calls t465.

Turn: (t1305) T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

River: (t1305) 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t1305
<font color="green">Main Pot: t1305 (t1305), between CO and Hero.</font>

[Phill S]

hmm. two questions:

1, would you have raised it more than the origional raiser? if not then you have the option of calling, its deceptive, but its certainly not safe. your seeing a flop on someone elses terms, this is rarely right, especially with AA
2, would a re-raise be called, or raised to an all in?

if you dont think 2 will come off, then i can see and argument for 1.

however im not that kind of person. im raising preflop, all in if its a large chunk of your stack (as in this case). youll get the money in as a guaranteed fave, however in this case youve had to tank it in when you may be behind (the flop) as you were basicly committed.

so in this case, if we use 'we' in the royal term, no, we do not cold call with aces. not in this case anyway.

Phill

edit: i only slow play them when im against aggressive players, no more than 5 handed and i have enough stack that i can gamble on a poor flop to fold to.

[Saborion]

The reason I decided to do this was because I was fairly certain that the SB wouldn't cold-call, don't ask me why. If anything, he'd push, and I'd be happy. That combined with the fact that the CO was first in, meaning he might be going for a steal. If so, he may not call a reraise. Since he'll improve to a better hand than mine so infrequently, I thought it was worth the risk of simply cold-calling preflop.

[Sam T.]

I read about this kind of flop play in Chiaffone and Reuben, and I like it. The raise in front of you will clear out the garbage, and by merely calling you give the bettor the impression that he is ahead, giving you the opportunity to trap. If the flop gives him a set or two pair you're in trouble, but that's life.

The problem you may have run into is the monotone flop, but you've got a draw to the nuts, and he may have called your all-in thinking that was all you had.

I'm not sure how you can get away from this...

[Lori]

With a 615 stack, I'm happy to push here preflop.

If I pick up the 225 that is in the pot, then that's great, if I get called and win, that's great too.

I haven't checked the results (I never do before posting) but if you raised to steal the blinds from the CO with QJs, how would YOU want the button to play his aces?

Lori

[Saborion]

[ QUOTE ]
With a 615 stack, I'm happy to push here preflop.

If I pick up the 225 that is in the pot, then that's great, if I get called and win, that's great too.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Given the low stacks and the structure of these sng's we really can't play around, can we? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't checked the results (I never do before posting) but if you raised to steal the blinds from the CO with QJs, how would YOU want the button to play his aces?

[/ QUOTE ]
You saying you'd want the button to push? If so, then I assume you'd call that push with QJs? That the right move huh?

[jtr]

No, I think she's saying she'd want the button to do exactly what you did. Giving the best possible opportunity to draw something favourable for QJs on the flop...

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
With a 615 stack, I'm happy to push here preflop.

If I pick up the 225 that is in the pot, then that's great,

[/ QUOTE ]
To me it does not seem so great winning such a small pot when you have AA.

[ QUOTE ]
if I get called and win, that's great too.

[/ QUOTE ]
Granted; the problem is that you want at least one of the blinds to come along as well, which is less likely if you reraise.

I like the OP's play here of flat-calling preflop with aces when his stack is 615, and up to about 900. With a stack of 1000 or more, he needs to reraise to deny the original raiser implied odds.

The main advantage to smoothcalling is that the original raiser will now bet the flop even if he misses. Also, as the OP stated in a later post, the SB here had a tendency to reraise -- that makes the smoothcall with AA particularly good.