I feel like I struggle a lot with AA, particularly if the aces don't have a lot of help. At most of the tables I play, 3-bets get called and sometimes even cold-called - it's really hard to get stacks in before the flop.

Is a hand like AA83r even worth raising much less 3-betting if there's no chance of getting it all in pre or getting a low SPR on the flop?

What about a hand like AAT9ds?

I just feel like I'm bloating the pot and taking control before the flop but if all I have on the flop is an overpair I'm done with the hand - nothing better is going to fold and nothing worse is going to call.

I do have a 3-betting range that includes more than just AA. I'll 3-bet any four cards that are all at least 9 and I'll 3-bet KK if it has help. But nonetheless, if the flop comes all low cards I always feel like that hits the callers' ranges harder than the raises, so if I c-bet and get raised I have to believe them.

Hope this made sense - general thoughts on playing AAxx at tables that are passive before the flop will be appreciated.

Here's an example: I'm on the button with AA23 with one suited ace. 5-handed. 2 limps, I pot the button, all 4 villains call, flop comes Q43r. SB checks, BB donks half pot into 4 people. How often are my aces good enough to call or raise there with 2 more people to act behind me?

EDIT: That's actually a bad example because the raise pre is easy and is no different than if I'd raised pre with 789T or KK76. My bad.

A better example might be 100bb effective stacks, UTG raises, CO calls, I pot AA23 with one suited ace on the button, both blinds coldcall and UTG and CO call. Now the flop comes Q43r and it's checked around to me. Usually at passive tables like these someone would bet 33, 44, 34, Q3 or 34 so I'm probably ahead, but checkraises aren't impossible, nor is it impossible for someone to play 2 pair tight passive. There's about 70bb in the pot now and I have about 86bb behind. After a 3-bet and 4 coldcalls a c-bet of even half pot is quite an investment. Anyone with less than AA is going to fold and anyone with more than AA is probably going to call, so my implied odds are dead in the water.

Hope that made more sense.

The single-raised pot scenario is simple: The goal with AA32ss there is to flop an ace or a NFD (which are your most common 'good hands'). And of course every playable hand can flop trips or a boat too, which are also good to have. Some 54x flops are nice too. All of those hands alone will make you a lot of money, so essentially even if you were just outright surrendering the pot every time you don't flop that sort of hand, you'd still want to raise. Keep in mind that in family pots, you are putting in just a bit of money compared to what is already in the pot, so you have to win the pot a lot less often than in a HU pot to do well.

The 3-bet pot scenario is more about pushing equity advantages, since at that SPR you obviously need to make money on your run-of-the-mill 'pretty good' flops, too, not just the monsters. AA32ss is doing quite well in that regard, but I'd flat AA83r. With AA32ss you are looking to stack off on the flops mentioned above, and also ones like Q43r that you picked. On Q43r, at least one other player has two pair or better just ~40% of the time (give or take 5-10%, probably, lol, since I only looked at one set of wide-ish ranges). So that's a pretty sweet flop for you as far as the non-monsters go. And of course if everyone just folds when they don't have a good hand (this is absolutely NOT going to happen), meaning you only get it in behind, you'd take that too, because winning the pot outright is actually better than getting it in with something like KQ97, which has 40% equity against you and which you'd rather have fold. "We only get it in behind" thinking can actually be pretty irrelevant at low SPRs, because of things like that.

Maybe this post is too informative. But anyway, it seems like you have a nitty psychology that you could work on addressing.

Just limp, flat all aces pre

Yea play your ****ty, non suited, non connected as if you're just set mining. Don't 3 bet, just like you would with lower pairs in hold em. Just call, take a flop and go from there. No reason to let everyone know you have Aces when they play so poorly on so many runouts / boards.

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Good post.

If you're not comfortable playing AA post flop, tighten up your 3b range slightly and work on opening it up from there.

I apologize for starting the thread and then abandoning it. Lots of good points I look forward to discussing.