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Semi-strong Hands Like Aaxx Oop


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I hate playing AAxx OOP. I will eventually post the flop play, but let's first discuss preflop. Position: Having position on an opponent is a *significant* advantage if there is a lot of post flop action (i.e the majority of the money will be risked post flop). The more money (relative to starting stack sizes) that goes in preflop, the less of an advantage this becomes (obviously, in the extreme situation where all the money goes in preflop, position means nothing: the best hand will win at showdown).Starting Hand Strength: As we all know, preflop hand values are very close to one another. That is, there are no real "domination" situations like we see in holdem (AA versus AK, AK versus AQ, or JJ versus 99 for example). When you have a better hand OOP against an opponent, hand values will only start to "outweigh" the positional disadvantage if we can cut back on post flop decisions (i.e. try to put it allin preflop)...this is under the assumption ofcourse, that you already have decided you're a favourite against your opponent's range.With that in mind, when I have AAxx OOP, if there isn't an opportunity to get the majority of money in preflop (say, around half the starting stack) then I tend to tread softly and see a flop. Only when the opportunity arises that I have both:1) a better AAxx (for example: one suited ace and perhaps one broadway as one of the x's) and2) I have the chance to put my opponents to the real decision preflop by putting most of the money in before the flop (perhaps with one pot-sized bet remaining for the flop)do I consider potting (or repotting...) AAxx OOP against my opponent.Let's consider a real hand I played yesterday:PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)Button ($49.10)Hero ($66.05)BB ($36.35)UTG ($54)MP ($55.45)CO ($41)Preflop: Hero is SB with 2club.gif, Aclub.gif, Kdiamond.gif, Aspade.gif. UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, CO raises to $1, 1 fold... Hero...?.....(at this point: Pot = $2.25 and I can raise to $3.50-to-go)Hero calls $0.75, BB raises to $2, UTG folds, CO calls $1... Hero...?.....(at this point Pot = $5.50 and I can raise to $8.50-to-go)Hero raises to $8.75...Does anyone prefer to raise at my first opportunity? I chose not to because of the introductory discussion in this thread: I felt the positional disadvantage out-weighed having AAxx (especially against 3 opponents, who all had shown a tendency to call any preflop raise once they were invested). Once the opportunity arose the second time, I felt my preflop raise could pack enough punch to possibly limit the field, and give me the opportunity to punish them on the correct flop.Also, if you take this line, what flops are you betting?1) All flops. We took the line of the aggressor: put them to a decision for all their chips (the pot is large enough now that if they call the pot bet on the flop, they ...and we... are pot committed)2) All flops except the most scary flops. (eg: check flops like 6 :club: 7 :D 8 :D )3) Only those flops that hit our hand. (eg. and flopped made hands, top set on safe or drawing board, flush draw+straight draw).After my raise, I was planning on following option #2. I was planning to pot almost all flops, except the worst coordinated flops that ruined my hand.

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I think I would probably just call the raise preflop. Reraising preflop might get rid of some of the players, but when you get called you are still out of position. Another downside is that you have pretty muched telegraphed your hand to your opponent. The combination of him "knowing" what you have and having position on you opens up a lot of bluffing oppurtunities for him on flops that aren't likely to hit aces. Lastly when you do hit a big flop, especially if an ace hits, it's going to be hard to get a lot of action. If you just call preflop you disguise your hand and if you hit a big flop you are probably going to get a lot more action. I think I would be very careful about what flops I continuation bet, because you are likely to get raised on any flop that doesn't fit aces if your opponent is paying attention.

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It very much depends on your image and other players' styles.Do you raise non AAxx hands preflop frequently?Did you see them make moves against c-bets on scary flops?

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Alot of times when raising or playing AAxx hands UTG, your only play is to lead out the pot on the flop unless you flop a full house or a terrible scary board comes. If the board comes 7 5 2 off suit, you have to lead the pot, checking in hopes of check raising is too risky because you are potentially giving a free card to make his or her hand

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I also make this play with wrap hands like [7 8 9 T] or two big suited pair like [K K J J]. I do this with the big two pair because they only play well short handed (ideally heads-up) post flop. I sometimes do this with wraps because these hands are easy to play from any position. With this 3-bet range, it is possible that *any* flop actually hits my hand hard (if I only did this with AAxx as discussed, then it's easy for my opponents to discern good flops to make plays back at me).

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Starting Hand Strength: As we all know, preflop hand values are very close to one another. That is, there are no real "domination" situations like we see in holdem (AA versus AK, AK versus AQ, or JJ versus 99 for example).
I think that might be overblown a little bit. There are some good margins preflop, even heads-up. I don't think that means we should play AAxx aggressively preflop, though, for the reasons you state. They key point that Bud brings up is that we can't reveal our hand by making the raise. If we're going to put in the second raise with significant money yet to play, we'd better be willing to do it with something other than AAxx. And that probably means getting our whole stack in as a dog fairly regularly.When the money is deep, the question isn't so much can we pick up an equity edge preflop but what percentage of flops do we like well enough to keep putting money in with good expectation. There's little consolation in getting an edge preflop if we end up dumping the hand on the flop.http://twodimes.net/h/?z=3048068pokenum -mc 500000 -o jc js ts 9d - jd 8s 7c 2s Omaha Hi: 500000 sampled boardscards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EVJs Ts Jc 9d 376204 75.24 121461 24.29 2335 0.47 0.7558s 2s 7c Jd 121461 24.29 376204 75.24 2335 0.47 0.245http://twodimes.net/h/?z=3048086pokenum -mc 500000 -o kc ks qd td - ad ah th jd Omaha Hi: 500000 sampled boardscards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EVKs Kc Qd Td 116236 23.25 383262 76.65 502 0.10 0.233Ad Jd Ah Th 383262 76.65 116236 23.25 502 0.10 0.767http://twodimes.net/h/?z=3048092pokenum -mc 500000 -o kc qc js ts - kh jc td 9s Omaha Hi: 500000 sampled boardscards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EVJs Ts Kc Qc 279905 55.98 107721 21.54 112374 22.47 0.6729s Jc Td Kh 107721 21.54 279905 55.98 112374 22.47 0.328
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http://www.propokertools.com/simulator/flo...amp;h4=&h5=Oh, and for interpreting (you only really need consider the top one):http://www.propokertools.com/simulator/flo...nstructions.jspAs you can see, AAK2ss has a great curve for reraising preflop against the ranges given. We will be better than 40% to win the 3-way pot on 70% of flops.We are only going to be way behind on <25% of flops, and we will usually be able to identify which ones these are very quickly.
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