[ QUOTE ]
your kidding right?

we are playing scared with pocket A's?

we don't want a caller?

i've been playing poker wrong all these years?

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't say we don't want a call at all, I said we want Villain to make a larger call or no call at all. Villain's range here is fairly wide and contains many hands that will not put more money in the pot after the flop unless Hero is beat. It also contains many hands like TT or KQ that, under the right circumstances, could pay Hero off big. If we smooth call, we have no idea which of those hands he has.

Smooth calling may induce him to make an error with a hand like KT on a T-high flop, but if the board comes KT5, Hero may very well be the one to make a costly mistake.

Then there are hands like small pairs that he would almost certainly ditch to a raise pre-flop but would call behind with if Hero smooth calls. There are the hands we need to charge to draw, because once Hero bets the flop, they are not putting in another penny unless they have Hero beat. Against these hands, we win 500 or lose 5000. If we make it 1000 more to call, Villain no longer has the right implied odds to call with this hand, and if he calls anyway, he has made an error in our favor. Now Hero can afford to pay him off when he flops a set, because he won't do it nearly often enough.

There are also hands like KQ that may find a fold if Hero smooth calls and then three-bets or check-raises a Q-high flop. If Hero juices the pot before the flop, KQ may well stick around anyway, and then will have a much harder time getting away from top pair.

Raising AA is not playing scared, it is building a pot in order to maximize profit and minimize reverse implied odds.