[Dan Mezick]

Certainly your finish is strong (top 3%) and I'd be very pleased with it also. My use of the sharp words were to describe the opponent types that will call your small preflop AA raise-- types that come with just about anything.

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You invite this KJ ("off" for sure) jerk into the pot, why? What's the OBJECTIVE of your 1200 raise? What's your plan?? Apparently, you want to let idiots in cheap. This you accomplish with ease.

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The way I may play AA here is simply my opinion of the best way to deal with the poker situation as described.

Lets get back to the hand itself.

You can lose very big pots with AA and KK. It has to do with being unable to get away. Tough players can play these hands more creatively because they are 100% capable of making that AA or KK laydown. I know you are new by the way this was played and so I advise to you the straightforward approach.

My opinion of the small raise remains the same-- it is far too small. I see what you try to accomplish-- you want to build a pot. Your ideal scenario is to get one caller. Here you did. In my view you got very lucky more players did not come in light of your very small raise.

My own view of the hand is to push with it here and to not get too greedy with it. I'm not trying to build a pot-- I want to take the blinds down. They represent a large enough percentage of my stack to be nutritious "as is".

A decent alternative would be to bet $3500 or so at the pot to thin the field and still hope for one weak caller who fails to suck out.

Try experimenting with many different ways to play specific hands and tourney scenarios. It can make you much more confident and potentially menacing (and thereby much more effective) at the table.

Good luck to you.