Over the past few weeks I have got into some interesting spots pre-flop with these hands. Am I making the right plays or being too Nitty.

I am aware that a lot of this stuff is player dependent, and I am just looking for general guidelines against unknown opponents.

All this is assuming opponents have around 100-200BB, and standard re-raising sizes.Also, the progressive betting structure does not pot commit either opponent.

JJ: 3 bet preflop. I fold to a 3 bet if I was the initial raiser and I fold to a 4 bet.

QQ: 4 bet preflop. I fold to a 5 bet and I fold 4 bet if I was the initial 3-better.

KK: I almost never fold KK preflop, only under rare circumstances.

AK: 4 bet preflop. I fold to a 4 bet if I was the 3-better, and I fold to a 5 bet.

1/2: People only get in KK+ for 4bet+ preflop unless game is playing crazy
2/5: People get in 99+/AK often enough that I'm not folding any of those hands for 100-200bb after 3b unless it's vs OMC or a limp/raise or something where they just always have KK+

This is way too general. I think you at least need to give hero/villains position, # of opponents, and how opponents acted. I assume by 'unknown opponent', you mean typical loose-passive low limit player?

Almost always to 4 bets.
Almost always to 3 bets when deep enough.
Unless player is just doing it every hand and is on monkey tilt.

I'm not stacking off for 100bb+ with AK or JJ ever. Sometimes QQ and a little more often with KK.

I folded QQ to a single raise yesterday. Pretty sure I was right, and against that villain's 15x pfr I'd do it again. Wouldn't fold kings though. Although I did fold kinds once.

Different spot, different villain facing 4-bet shove.

In most situations these hands except KK are going to be 3 bet fold hands. Most 4 bets preflop in low stakes live games are going to be AA or KK, like 90% of the time unless you have high level players. Still, lots is dependent on reads, stack sizes etc. generally if you are willing to stack off 200 bb preflop with non- KK, AA hands you will be behind at these stakes.

This is way to general to answer. Factors such as stack size, table image, villain tendencies and game flow will make the decision for each different in every situation.

In general;
Get very used to taking bet fold lines vs live low stakes fish.
Most of these guys are positionally oblivious and will overcall the same range they call with. They rarely 3 bet and only ever 4 bet QQ+ (weighted towards KK since QQ flats often and AA will often be played "sneaky" vs 3 bet)

I will iso any of these hands vs limper(s) and I will open raise them alk from any position but I'm usually just flatting JJ because these guys almost always limp mediocre/speculative hands and only raise premiums. JJ wont be sufficiently ahead of most live fish's raising range.

QQ I will 3 bet and fold to 4 bet accept in steal/resteal positions. Sounds nitty but really, what range do you expect to be 4 bet by from a passive and stationy fish?

KK is almost never a fold preflop cause QQ and AK will often stack off and once in a blue moon youll even catch someone spazzing out w a medium pair or AQ.

I have folded KK preflop exactly one time. Around 2007, 1-2 cash game.
UTG was a TAG that played very raise or fold preflop but decided to open limp UTG. UTG+1 raised to $10, action to me on button. I raised to $30 w KK. UTG shoves 100+bb and UTG +1 calls all in. I folded and saw AA and QQ get it in.
the sadness came on the turn in the form of a K.

Oh, AK;
With AK I will typically call in position if there's only one player in, the PFR.
If there's one or two callers I prefer to squeeze to try and get heads up with sone dead money in the pot. In this case I may gave to stack off vs 4 bet based on 4 bettors stack size/pot odds.

If I open raise AK and am 3 bet by a fish, ill flat in position but I will fold it OOP mostly.

I may call OOP w AKs, if stacks are deep/read villain as weak/3 bet is small/we are both in late position.

I would guess calling 3 bets live OOP w AKo is gonna be a break even proposition at best and only adds to volatility.

One of the things I had to get used to was that so many of my opponents don't even have 4 bet ranges, and sometimes no real 3 bet range. The other half are shorter stacks that spazz out wide AI as long as they have 50bb or less.

There is a concept here that has kinda been hinted at, but not said directly.

Unless we are guaranteed getting called by worse when we 3! or 4!,and villain will call with worse on later streets, there may be more money to be made post flop and not get in as much pre. As previously stated, players are stationy at these stakes.

People try to crack aces a lot, regardless of odds. How many times have you heard something like, "I knew you had AA, but 24o is my favorite hand..."

Any thoughts on playing more post with these hands? We really only narrow ranges if we get 3! or 4!, imo.

Sometimes I like to call AK, AA, KK and try to trap post flop, or at least squeeze out a bet or two. QQ and JJ are a different story, a lot of cards can come that either beat me or kill my action.

This is textbook backwards thinking.

If you want to pick a hand to just call preflop even it's good enough to raise, and trap with it, QQ and JJ are good hands to do that. Don't waste great hands like AA trapping.

With your very best hands you want to pile money in and hope your opponent is second-best and will pay you off. With your hands that are very good but not best, now you can gain more (proportionally) by deceiving your opponent.

Put another way: if you're worried about action killing cards when you have QQ/JJ, don't those same cards also kill your action when you have aces? But with the better hand, losing action costs you more.

I always find it funny how people have such a hard time folding kings in some scenarios. If 1/2 villain is ONLY 4betting KK+ what do you think you are up against when you have kings? 1 combo of KK and 6 of AA. The reasons people end up continuing is that they convince themselves the villain can have AK or QQ in their range.

For the most part I like your setup. Deciding if you want to 4 bet with AK/QQ is always situational. Against unknown opponents, the two key criteria your missing are stack sizes and position. 4 betting may commit you to the pot right there and if it doesn't will often set SPR to be trivial on the flop. This is usually but not always fine with QQ and often bad with AK.

Position is critical with AK. If your in the blind and it's already 3 bet when it gets to you, often folding AK is best. The problem is that if anybody is willing to play to your 4 bet, you are probably behind or way behind. And with the raise and reraise, it is likely some of your outs are dead. If you just call and hit the flop you often don't make any money and if you flat and miss you often have to fold the flop.

The reason flatting with AA/KK works better then flatting with QQ/JJ is not because of scare cards. It's because your hand is more likely to hold up and you have a better idea where you stand.

That is not a good reason. Protection mentality at its finest: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...ality-1493927/

The value you lose when you don't 3bet AA is much greater than the value you lose when you don't 3bet JJ. Your argument seems to boil down to "we don't need to protect AA, but we need to protect JJ".

Protection isn't a totally invalid concept. It is over used and misused, but it is one of the factors that applies in this sort of situation. AA vs a 25% range is 84% to win, JJ vs a 25% is 67%.

It isn't the biggest factor through. The biggest factor is how much is hero setting themselves up to make mistakes post flop. If hero flats JJ preflop and the flop comes Q73, now what? Hero has put himself in a situation where both folding and calling can be huge mistakes.

I note that the "general guidelines against unknown opponents" questions generally belong in the Beginners' Questions forum. There are multiple reasons. The biggest is that most posters do not lay out what their assumptions are about how an "unknown" plays. Therefore, these questions get a wide range of answers. The answers are correct, but only for the "unknowns" they play against, not yours.

For example, if you are playing in a major Las Vegas room during the Comdex, your "unknown" is likely a well above average intelligence player who simply decided to make a lot more money doing what they do than playing poker. If you are in the rural Midwest where there are no tourists playing on a Saturday night, an unknown is likely to be someone who's only played their monthly home games before.

Then add in things like stack size, position, the action before (the raise range in the UTG is much tighter than on the button), day of the week, time of the day, how close are you to the bar closing, etc. You can make a lot of mistakes by going with a general guideline.

Therefore, I'm going to lock this. I suggest posting one of the situations where you had trouble and let people look at it. You'll learn a lot more than you will from this thread.