The table is brand new, sadly I think I'm the only one who has bought in for 100bb. Most of the table has bought in around for around 100-150 dollars. I think we've played about 20 hands, and I've won about 70-80 already. 50 of it has come from the guy to my right, a youngish kid in his early 20s who's played maybe half the hands so far dealt. The table was pretty passive with mostly 40 years olds who busted out the tournament, and maybe two younger kids who were active.
When the young kid to my right straddles to 5, he had about 80 in his stack. My line of thinking at the time was if I limp there is a good chance that I'll get 4-6 other limpers along, maybe one of the younger guys who was near the button might raise it, I think he had around 120-150 in his stack. I don't think anyone else besides me was above 100bb. The kid who straddled I'm fairly sure he's shoving wide on his straddle if he gets enough limpers. He seemed frustrated early on and figured he might see whats in the pot and go for it. I know if I make this play with deeper stacks at the table, that I'm most likely turning my hand faceup after 3betting a raise. I already had it in my head that if the straddler just checks his option that I wasn't going to bloat this pot and maybe whimper that I turn my hand into something pretty weak. But since everyone else was shallow and limping a lot, I figured I could induce the straddler into raising or pushing.
Things worked out, got 3 limpers and the blinds, UTG pushed and stacked him. But how often would you make this play, would you do things different if there were 3-4 stacks with 200-250bb. Does it depends on the straddler and how often he raises limpers on his straddle. It was one of the few situations I've ever carred for limping with aces. In MP and late I raise this all day, but it feels like a good time to try this play with such shallow stacks.
Limping here is fine. 2p2 obsessively hates the move, so they're going to tell you it's terrible, but they'll be completely wrong. (This is because they still treat Live hands as if they were played during a multitabling session on Pokerstars).
Also, make posts a nit easier to read and follow, it'll help get more responses.
I would raise pre-flop 100% of the time, effectively your limping so you can get more money in pre? because you believe someone will raise and you will 3 bet, they will be to short to fold. What tends to happen is limping leads to more limping and i wouldnt make this play unless i was so sure UTG is shoving.
Personally i just raise to 12-15 and then have some very easy decisions if i get called and see a flop.
There's nothing inherently wrong with limping AA in early position. However, you want to know that that you'll be raised. Beyond that, it depends on how you play. If you are using this as a play to protect your limps with hands like 55-77, I like it. If you are limp/raising with lots of hands, I like it as well. If you are only doing this with AA, know your better villains have logged this and will look to crack your aces cheap.
I like this play, given that you did it with a plan. If I was pretty sure someone would raise, I would try it too. This also allows you to open limp some speculative hands (small PPs) in early position without being so likely to be punished.
As Venice says, I wouldn't make it a hand face up situation, if you think you're likely to play these people again.
I'd almost always limp/re-raise AA here with some shortish stacks at the table, especially at my table when there is usually some cowboy who wants to squeeze with all the dead money in the middle (and our limp UTG could cause quite a lot of limpers behind us, making the squeeze to go to pass up). Heck, I might even do this in LP after some limpers to the straddle if the blinds/straddler have a tendency to squeeze / put lottsa ships at risk in this situation.
You can never know with any certainly whether or not a raise behind you is forthcoming (barring an obvious physical tell like cutting out chips, which I actually have seen a number of times). You simply do it because it's +EV to do so and the concept is effective in the long term. Yes, occasionally it will get limped around and you're in a bad spot. But, you need to have the discipline to keep the pot small and tread cautiously when this happens. It's key to keep in mind that you have one pair versus an undefined, infinite range when it does get limped aorund, and not to feel embarrassed about having to fold your AA or KK.
Not in this thread, but some on this forum in these limp/raise threads act like it's impossible to get away from the hand if it gets limped around. It really shouldn't be difficult to fold when you end up with black AA versus four opponents on a Jh-Th-8h board
