Cardinal rule number one in no-limit hold'em is: If you limp with aces, you will never go broke with aces. THe only reason that you limp with aces before the flop is so that someone behind you will raise and give you the oppurtunity to reraise. If you flat call with them before the flop and nobody raised, four or five players may limp into the pot behind you with all sorts of random hands. The more people in the pot, the more chance that you're going to get beaten. So, if one of them comes out swinging on the flop, you can simply throw your aces away and you haven't lost anything except your original bet. Nobody has seen your hand; nobody knows that you have limped in with aces, so just throw them away.

-T.J. Cloutier,
Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em page 161

I like it, seems like it would work more in LA/Vegas where the players are much more loose aggresive. I've heard in our casino(can't remember which one) most players are loose/passive \ weak/tight

I like it from an early position, and only when you think the pot is going to get re-raised. Whenever you can get All-In headup with aces preflop, you hvae done ALL that you can do

Which brings us to one of the most important tells in hold-em poker. Looking to the left before you act. ALWAYS.. which brings us to the best seat... Seat#1

Not only does it let you look left w/o looking obvious. It prevents Seat 7/8 from looking at you when they are first to act ^^

Originally Posted by the alex

Cardinal rule number one in no-limit hold'em is: If you limp with aces, you will never go broke with aces. THe only reason that you limp with aces before the flop is so that someone behind you will raise and give you the oppurtunity to reraise. If you flat call with them before the flop and nobody raised, four or five players may limp into the pot behind you with all sorts of random hands. The more people in the pot, the more chance that you're going to get beaten. So, if one of them comes out swinging on the flop, you can simply throw your aces away and you haven't lost anything except your original bet. Nobody has seen your hand; nobody knows that you have limped in with aces, so just throw them away.

-T.J. Cloutier,
Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em page 161

One word: BS.

Particullary at the smaller stakes games most of us play.

TO play like this is putting AA on the same level as AK, as most people assume this is a drawing hand. Why would I want to make a majority favorite into a plurality favorite?? I don't want 4 or 5 players against me, I want at most 2. 5 players for

I understand what he is saying, that a PF raise will probably get checked to if they flop good, setting the trap, and a raised pot will force you to make a bigger bet that hurts when you get checkraised.

But if you raise preflop, you will limit the number of hands that are playable, therefore making it easier to gauge the relative strength of your hand.

TJ is an awesome player, and he may be able to play like that because of his people reading ability. He is a very successful player, better than I will ever be. But for the level I play at, I don't feel thats a profitable move. I have read that book and thought it was junk.

Just my $.02 though, and its probably wrong.

Vense and I have similar table preferences and at .5/1 and up, players are very aggressive preflop, but this works well at any aggressive table. If you play long sessions, it works well. If you have to toss the Aces, you toss 'em and lose little. You gambled, you lost.

Originally Posted by the alex

Vense and I have similar table preferences and at .5/1 and up, players are very aggressive preflop, but this works well at any aggressive table. If you play long sessions, it works well. If you have to toss the Aces, you toss 'em and lose little. You gambled, you lost.

I agree, but I got the feeling TJ was advocating almost always limping with AA. But, at an aggressive table, limping more often with AA is a very profitable play, given that you are (guesstimate) 75% sure that it will get raised PF. That way you can then blow them out, or out play them, as he says.

Now is he refering to Tournament or Ring game play? Ring this is very profitable play long term vs aggressive opponents. But Tourny, I dunno.