Hi, this is my first post. Just wanted to say also that I've lurked here for a while and found the information in these threads absolutely invaluable in improving my game.

I will no doubt have a lot of simple questions within the next few weeks but would like some input on this.

I'm used to playing 6-max Micro NL and most comfortable at .10/.20. I guess I play tag but have trouble playing against tag players. My main strategy is to target spewdonks and take all their money, and I usually succeed.

However..at full ring - what do you do when you're on a DREAM table with 30%+ donks who are calling anything preflop and you hold a massive hand like qq,kk,aa ?

I am totally stuck - it's like Zynga (of which I have played very little of), where people will be all in regardless so I can comfortably limp kk early or mid and I KNOW somebody is all in.

But I have seen TOO many times, aa being cracked in a 4 or 5 way all in fest.

(Sorry for long post)

What is optimal play here? Should I be completely confident in these big hands and open shove if I know there will be at least 2 or 3 callers?

If you can find a table that you can do that with then definitely get it in with AA,KK,QQ,JJ,TT,99,AK,AQ,AJ,

I don't think I've seen those tables, maybe back in 2005 you could do the 'move of honor'.

Forget any coolers, if you are getting it in as a favorite then you are making money, something called 'expected value' or 'ev', you might lose this time but the play is still correct because you can expect to win there more often than you lose.

Wish I was playing in 2005. You are making me cry donk!

I wish I was playing then too! You could make so much money!

lol I here it was really really fishy back then.

To be quite honest - no, I haven't seen many tables like this but when the stars align, it happens.

Really, I am more interested in the theory behind it because I understand it is +ev but how many times is qq,kk,aa gonna come out on top in a 4 way all in? Is it a coin flip?

My grinding habits make me wanna be at least 80/20 (v all) favorite.

Thanks for the advice. Guess I should open push more with these against uncontrollable donks.

Yes, big pairs are going to win less often 3-4 way, but you have also got to remember that the more people in the pot the better odds you are getting on a call, and therefore the less % you have to win for a call to be profitable.

Only fold big pairs because you are very sure that your opponent's ranges consist almost solely of higher pairs, not because you don't want to risk it.

Just use Pokerstove to figure your equity against 2-3 villains. Just use AA or KK or QQ as your hand and create ranges for villains by opting for a 5% preflop range or 7% preflop range or whatever you think is appropriate. Or you can make up your own ranges (e.g. 88+,AJ+) for the villains you typically see at the tables you are talking about . Do some exploring with Pokerstove and you will get a better feel for where you stand against different types of villains.

You are not going to come up with the 80-20 advantage you want, but you are going to have, in general, +ev situations on these types of tables. I want to know where these tables are!

If you have AA, your hand will lose an all in against four random hands about half the time. But the idea is that when you lose, you lose one BI, but when you win, you'll win four BI. So in the long run, you're ahead.

50% chance to quadruple your stack/80% chance to double up.

you do the maths

Thanks for the advice! ..and that suggestion above about pokerstove. Sure that'll be very helpful.

Course, don't wanna give away where I'm finding these tables but they are generally at lower stakes on some of the lesser known poker sites. Guess they recruit donks, dunno.

Anyway, before I tested this fully on a cash game, I multi-tabled 14 play money tables and let rip. Open pushed all my big hands and played extremely agressive.

As you can imagine, LOTS of donks - almost exclusively bad players on play money and got my stack from 1k to 15k in about an hour an half.

No thought really, purely mechanical grinding with focus on 100% open pushing those big hands.

I think losing confidence in big hands due to past bad beats is probably one of my main weaknesses and no doubt costs me more than it profits me.

Thanks again!