Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

McEvoy made reference to this in Championship Holdem (not 2+2, cousin got if for me for xmas; not it's sklansky, but its not bad).

You're in the bb with aces, 8 limps to you. Should you raise to get as many bets in the pot while you're definitely ahead(knowing people won't fold for one more bet pf), or do you check to give people a worse price to draw against your UI pair on the flop? I've been struggling with this for a little while and am wondering what you guys think

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

Err don't waste your time worrying about this situation. Just raise it every single time in this spot, and you will thank me 3 years from now.

Brad

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

Hey there,

This is a really, really common type of question. In the games we play (where you routinely have a lot of players limping preflop) and in pretty much every other game the answer is unquestionably RAISE. Yes sometimes there are cases in other games where not raising before the flop may be better, but for our purposes you have the chance RIGHT NOW to punish 7 bad players for limping with junk. Put as many bets in as you can in this situation.

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

RAISE.

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

you're not worried about giving them 16+:1 on the flop? Those trash calls they're so used to making don't look so bad when you're getting that kind of price.

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

Even if they're getting 16:1 to call the flop, don't forget that something like 30% of every bet that goes into the flop when they do call is yours.

I think it's a common misconception that if a player calls profitably, the bettor loses money - this is not necessarily the case.

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

Read (or reread) the Building Big Pots Before The Flop section in SSHE.

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

The reason you raise preflop and bet flop is that you know that by the river you are, let's say 70%, favorite to win and you want to be 70% favourite to 50 dollars, not 10 (put extreme [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

[ QUOTE ]

Should you raise to get as many bets in the pot while you're definitely ahead(knowing people won't fold for one more bet pf), or do you check to give people a worse price to draw against your UI pair on the flop?

[/ QUOTE ]

you could view it as you are drawing in a way.

every card that they get that doesn't beat you, is a card that helps your hand.

now which situation, raised PF, or unraise PF, gives you a more profitable "draw"?

EDIT - added a "?" in the end

Re: Is it cool to check aces in the bb?
 

[ QUOTE ]
you're not worried about giving them 16+:1 on the flop? Those trash calls they're so used to making don't look so bad when you're getting that kind of price.

[/ QUOTE ]

Worried? Nah. You want to win money, not pots. I'd rather win 70% of the time in a gigantic pot than 80% of the time in a much smaller one.