Hello!!

What would you reckon is the best way to play AA xx on the blinds in omaha? I find when a couple of limpers come in and I raise on the small/big blinds it generally ends up costing me money.. Any suggestions??

As always, it depends ...

What are you doing in that spot when you don't have AAxx ? If you always call behind except when you have aces you make it VERY easy for villains to play perfectly against you with position.

How strong are your AA?

Obviously there's a huge difference between AA72 and AAJT

If you have crappy Aces, limping along and hoping to overset someone is probably the way to go. Your hand is nicely disguised when you do hit and you're often taking a stack off QQxx on a AQ3 flop.

If you have stronger Aces, then raising for value and playing poker post-flop is the way to go, especially if we're in the SB and raising gets the BB to go away (if he sticks around we're in a ton of tricky spots post-flop trying to get value OOP multiway).

The question was based on the first one aa 72 but it was good to hear your thoughts on the latter. Would you play these hands the same under the gun?

DD and ASB summed it up well. As for UTG, I am always raising with AAxx no matter the strength. I am never going to 4B with AA72r, but against the right villian, I may 4B AAJTds.

I would not recommend this. You should be looking to balance, and mixing up your play dependant on villains at your table and how they play etc. Sometimes it is fine to raise, sometimes it is fine to limp. Know your villain(s).

Depends how much is in the pot when it gets to you. If you can jam it in pre that's always a good play if it's at least single suited. Or if you can get a large % of your stack in pre that's also good. I personally am still working it out, AAxx can be an expensive hand although I do have my preferences for playing it these days.

So when are we balancing? Are we doing it when we have AA72r and limping or are we doing it when we have AAKQds? Or are we doing both? You should be balanced anyway because you shouldnt only be raising AAxx from UTG.

I personally will raise as wide as 2345ss against the right table from UTG. (Im not recommending anyone start doing this. It takes an extremely tight/passive table or gin flopping skills.)

Agree. This is also table dependent too.

I assume OP we are talking about PLO and not PLO 8 or just limit 8 or better?

He's raising more than aaxx here which is where the balance comes from

Isn't AAJTds like the nuts preflop? Why wouldn't you 4bet it?

Some villains snap fold to 4B because omgomg he has to be 4B AAxx here

EDIT: To expand, some villains will become fit or fold post flop if you 4B where if you just flat the 3B, they will fire stacks into you.

And that's a bad thing?

Which part?

tbh, in my opinion it isn't fine to limp AAxx utg, however ragged they are.

I tend to agree. If you get re-raised, then you balance between calling the 3-bet and 4-betting. (By balance, I mean balance based on the villain, not balance theorically speaking.)

I just hesitate to use the word "always" when talking about doing something in poker. Let's assume (hesitate to use that word too), that all villains have a hud at the table. UTG they have me raising 5% and will assume I am raising only with top tier hands. I should be occasionally, not necessarily very often raising with miscellaneous hands like the one you mentioned above or say 991010 etc. Villains will think I only am raising with monster Omaha hands hence disguising my range on certain flops making it harder to play against me. To answer your above questions vaguely it just depends. Do I have spewmonkeys at my table that will stack off light? Is it Nit Tuesday? Since everyone has a hud on me and I limp a very small x% UTG using AAKQds from your example could be in that range easily. Why not include 78910 every once in a while? I am just trying to make it as difficult as possible for villains to put me on my range and if I always raise with certain hands, and always limp with certain hands, the better players will be able to play IP better against me. I am used to playing hi/low which is a different animal then just Omaha high, but it translates over to that side too with mixing it up. Just an opinion.

Some interesting thoughts, I generally raise, never limped much with that type of a hand might try it though as its costing me dollars playing it agressive.

Something worth mentioning:

When someone calls UTG with AAKQds, it is not to balance his raising range, it is to balance his calling range.

If you don't limp utg, the question doesn't really arise.

^This

reads. if LAG, just get as much in PF. TAG I would just call OOP PF.