[SCBielski]

I've seen so many posts in uNL lately where people completely misplay their aces preflop so I feel the need to explain it in depth:

We should start with a very fundamental concept, and that is AA is the best preflop hand you can be dealt. You should always be opening aces for a raise preflop and you should always 3-bet your aces against any opponent and any number of opponents. Playing aces in a multiway pot is too dangerous a risk, therefore you should always be looking to isolate opponents preflop to give yourself the best chance to win.
OK, so now that the basics have been covered, let's talk about 3-bets and 4-bets preflop. If you open for a raise and are 3-bet you have to choices: call or 4-bet. This is where we have to become opponent specific. Against a LAG opponent that has been known to 3-bet light a call is typically the most EV play as you know they will play the flop aggressively no matter what they hit and we can take advantage of this. On the other hand, if our opponent is TAG and has a small 3-bet range we should 4-bet as they are likely to shove over our aces with their 3-bet range. Furthermore, if we smooth call a TAG's 3-bet we will have to fear any face card that hits on the flop as this may have completed a set for our opponent. Since the odds of a face card hitting on the flop are greater than 30%, this is legitmate consideration we have to make when deciding which action to take preflop against a TAG player's 3-bet. A good TAG will also fold out hands like TT-QQ facing an all in on the flop, so we see no EV from trying to smooth call their 3-bet preflop in order to stack off on the flop. Simply put, a solid TAG's preflop 3-bet range is something like TT-AA, and possibly AK. Since we hold aces and our opponent likely holds a monster, we need to take advantage of this and force them to commit all in with hands like QQ and KK. Now, you might argue putting them to a decision for all their chips preflop is -EV, but in fact it is not. Our opponent will only commit more money to the pot postflop with the lower end of their range (TT and JJ) if they flop a set on us, but they will be willing to commit a good deal postflop with QQ or KK (assuming they don't hold AA because we do). If we simply make our opponent commit preflop with their hand, they will likely call off with QQ+, but fold out TT and JJ. This means we get max EV if they call, but we really lose nothing if they fold out.

I hope this post has been helpful for preflop play with aces. Feel free to post any comments, etc.