szwajar1979 said:
How often do you play AA? Is there always an entry for everything before the flop? Please give me directions. Because I've lost all my cards for the last five AA times.
How often? 100%.
You lost 5 times in a row with AA (you mean with AA not to AA). 5 is a very small sample size so it is not impossible to be just bad luck but the question here is how are you playing AA?
Do not limp AA unless as a trap in isolation with a short stack. Limping AA is the worst way to play it.
Do not just jam it in pre unless our stack is short, say under 15bb. In fact AA might be the only hand that could be a standard open for value with <10bb so long as our sizing doesn't tip off our opponents. If we open jam AA at 60bb or more, we will rarely get paid, and if we do get called, a little bad luck will take our entire large stack. So don't do this.
AA is a standard strong open from any seat at the table. Personally, I would flat call an opening or 3-bet if Villain overcalls or tends to call wide. After an open and multiple calls I definitely 3-bet to thin the herd. We prefer to be heads-up or at most 3-way with this hand. If someone jams, we call 100%. If a short stack jams we almost always raise to fold out players behind. If someone else joins in, that's life.
If someone 3-bets our open we could flat or 4-bet/4-bet-jam depending on stacks, players behind, Villain tendencies to call or fold.
Post flop, dry boards are good for us. Obviously any flop with an A is good for us so long as it's not too connected. We don't want to see straights or flushes connect, so with wet flops we will usually continue small sizings for pot control and if anyone bets or raises large we might have to lay down. Remember that if someone calls our 3x open say, there is a high probability that he has 2 broadways so the A on the flop will give him at least back door straight
equity.
An A on the flop will often be a curse though, as we block top pair so sometimes it might be tough to get paid. The best flop is usually something like K84 rainbow because hands like KJ will pay us and there are pretty much no draws.
Let's use this K84 rb flop as an example why not to limp AA pre.
If we open AA for 3bb and get 2 callers, nobody should have 2-pair here. The only likely hands ahead of us are KK, 88, 44 - only 9 combos total. Because K8, K4, 84 should fold pre to 3bb open.
If we limp in as a trap, we end up in a 4-way or 5-way pot and we can add all of those 2-pair hands to the hands that beat us, another 27 combos! So we 1) quadruple the combos that beat us, 2) add more Villains into the pot for a greater chance for someone to have one of those combos and 3) give ourself no read on any of their hands.
So by limping, we potentially increase our chances of losing by an order of magnitude. This is what it means when we say, limping AA only invites suckouts.
