Playing monster pre-flop hands from EP

[Pokey]

I'm curious: if you've got AA, KK, or AK in early position, how do you decide whether to call or raise preflop? With powerhouse hands like this, what causes you to limp vs. raise right out of the gates?

[shadow29]

I don't remember a time I've limped one of these hands at a regular table.

[Emmitt2222]

This is the small stakes forum, if you are not raising these hands each and every time you get them from EP you are giving up on some large equity against people who like to coldcall and do other such stupid things. Just keep hitting raise and you will be fine, no need to get fancy here for any reason. The only time you should think about stuff like this is against a more thinking player HU, but this will never be the case in EP so once again I say raise.

[Rudbaeck]

Off course there is; if to my immediate left there is a maniac who rarely calls anyone elses open-raises, but virtually always raises a limper, and whom the rest of the table is on to and calling/3-betting liberally I'll limp.

Off course, this happens like once every few hundred table hours.

[Justin A]

You can call if you've got a bunch of very aggressive players behind you that make it almost certain that it will get raised behind you.

In higher games it's often good to limp with big pairs to protect some of your lighter limping hands, but this requires that your opponents be paying attention.

[PassiveCaller]

In small stakes games there's almost no thinking to it. I raise and expect many worse hands to still call.

[pfkaok]

[ QUOTE ]
You can call if you've got a bunch of very aggressive players behind you that make it almost certain that it will get raised behind you.


[/ QUOTE ]

It is pretty game dependant for sure. just b/c this is a small stakes forum doesn't mean that its never correct to limp-reraise. people post 15/30 Party hands here, and at certain tables in those games limp-reraising with AA, KK or AKs can be a pretty good play.