1-3 NL Holdem.

PAHWM.

We are on the button with 300 (max buy in, just topped up). we are also known to be a bit on the tighter side. We have tight players to our left and more aggressive ones to our right.

We look down and see 2 beautiful black aces.

The problem is that the table, though usually loose has everyone fold to us. Only the blinds remain.

Villain 1 on the small blind is OMC. He has about 200 in front.

Villain 2 on the BB, Not quite OMC but definitely not aggressive. Has about 300 in front.

I decide to check.

My choices seem to me to the following. I can raise here and "steal" the blinds. They could think I am just raising from the dealer position which is just standard ABC poker at 1-3. I will probably steal their blinds and with the best hand in poker, that only comes around infrequently, I win $4

The second choice is to just call. Of course I am giving them a chance to just call, limp and hit anything that could crack my aces. But I have a well disguised hand here. I'm thinking that the deception of calling with aces and the implied odds possible here are worth the risk of giving away free cards.

Would you raise in this situation? Under what circumstances?

i would raise here to my standard size. no reason to level urself into oblivion imo.

Maybe just muck instead? Do you hate money?

This happens from time to time. You pick up a monster at an action table and everyone clams up that hand. No reason to deviate. Just make a standardish raise. You can go a bit smaller in these spots if you want. $8-$10 is fine, just take your $4 and move on. There's no reason to have a button limping range just to try and generate action.

Raise wtf.

OP is putting way too much thought into this. If you just pick up the blinds, so be it. FPS isn't the cure for this problem... Straddles are.

+1

You gotta raise here, your'e on the button , you should get the least amount of credit from this position, especially when it has been folded to you

it's not the end of the world if they both fold

Yes
If I was still breathing

Not making it (at least) $10 here is criminal. If one of the tight passives has TT-KK they'll happily play for $10, but they might not raise it themselves because they're tight passives...

Just flatting from the button when first in with a big pair is usually a big mistake. If villains are paying any sort of attention they will notice and figure correctly that you are inviting them into the hand. If you had anything else you would have raised.

The only time flatting is a good idea is when your exploiting a specific player in the blinds. You might want to invite a stationary whale along or induce a raise from a maniac.

If these guys are tight I think I would lean to a minnish type raise, like $7, which is going to be hard to pass up. Even if they both call we still have a very manageable SPR in position (even moreso if it goes HU, even against the shortstack).

But I don't hate a limp here by any means, especially with all these images.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Equating folding preflop with limping here is just lolable.

Oh noes, we see a flop in position with AA at most 3ways. That can't possibly be +EV, no money to be made in that spot at all.

GopenlimpinghereisEV;thequestioniswhetheritisthebe stplayG

he was kidding for sure lol

Grunch

Moments like this are why my button and co open ranges are so wide. Maybe the BB will choose this hand to start playing back .

“I limped AA because I was afraid that I wouldn’t get action and he check raised me on J82 what should I do?” Sounds like every TAGfish strategy discussion ever. My friend told me a hand where he checked 32o in the BB against a dude who notoriously limps AA and ended up stacking him by playing bottom 2 perfectly against his holding (and AA playing as badly as possible from a Fundamental Theorem of Poker sense against my friend).


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Just raise FFS. When you raise your value hands pre and your raise is wide, sometimes they still fold. Worrying about this fact is like worrying about missing out on 772 flops when you fold 72o.

open for $5, just like you would if you had JsTs

I never check unless there is only a single player remains, then i'd complete in SB i guess (maybe). Raise button to $12 in 1/3. They fold, oh well, it beats getting stacked.

That's gonna be hard to do in a 1/3 game. Even in a 1/2 game, don't open to $5. That's horrific.

If you're going to get stacked in position in an SPR 35+ limped pot HU/3way when someone outflops you, by all means, do anything other than limp.

Glol@reasonstoraise,imoG

If you have two OMCs in the blinds you can open up your raising range in LP. This way you can steal a lot of blinds as well as play pots in position. Then when you actually pick up big hands you'll be less worried about them folding.

I don't have a LP open-limping range, especially against the opponents you described. Even if I've been card dead and haven't raised a hand in several orbits. I want to at least give myself a chance at winning a medium+ sized pot. If they fold, nbd, open wider and exploit their nittiness.

As an aside (and I know this doesn't apply to everyone), in the 2/3 game at my local cardroom they take a $5 drop +$1 for the BBJ. If one open-limps the button in as in the above scenario, and the blinds complete/check, once the flop is dealt there will be a whopping $3 remaining. Something to consider...

This is the easiest raise of the day: If they fold, you win money and you get to play another hand.

Sometimes your V's just don't have good hands and taking small pots down PF is part of the game.

And while this is all fine and dandy, the problem is that I doubt OP has gotten himself into any of these situations due to the table normally being loose, and he'd mostly always see 3 loose limpers to him in this spot with little FE.

If it had been a tight table and once a round it was folded to OP who was abusing his LP and raising speculative hands, then by all means, raise the monsters too. But that likely hasn't been the case at this table, and because of that he's considering his options (which is fine).

Lotta people here seem to be suggesting that seeing a flop with a disguised AA on the Button in a limped HU/3way won't be very profitable, which is absolutely mind boggling. Not sayin' that raising is horrible, just sayin' that limping can't possibly be.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Yes, I was considering all my actions here. And yes, you are correct that I hadn't been consistently raising from the button. There had usually been some preflop action and with bad cards I need to fold.