Is limping AA the new black?

[Guthrie]

I had occasionally seen people limp AA at the 16s and 27s, from early position, in the early rounds, and then either shove when raised, or try to play post flop. I rarely saw tight players do this.

While waiting for Stars to come up with a deposit method, I've been playing at the 6.50s and it seems that limping AA, KK, and even QQ has become epidemic, and even the tight players are doing it. I can see where this would work, since there's always someone who'll raise for fun, or push AK to try and mop up all those limped chips. On the other hand, if you can't lure someone all-in, then you're often stuck with 4 or 5 to a flop and one or more donks who'll never fold and end up losing to 77/22.

Is there any validity to this strategy, or is it better to stay old-school, raise, and either hope for a reraise or fold everybody out and scoop up the blinds?

[BHokie1]

They're all idiots [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

It seems to come in waves, I've actually seen a rash of limp/re-raise AI with AK lately.
[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Mike MacIntosh]

Continue to raise your monsters, and let the chasing idiots pay you off. No need for FPS.

[kevstreet]

Action limping is fine if you have a read that you're going to get played back and the stack sizes warrant that sort of play:

PokerStars Game #8111931803: Tournament #41403921, $55+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2007/01/25 - 07:25:10 (ET)
Table '41403921 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: pipfugl (1425 in chips)
Seat 3: wickers3858 (2835 in chips)
Seat 5: kevstreet (4752 in chips)
Seat 7: onlyone2005 (1545 in chips)
Seat 8: BunnieLee (2943 in chips)
kevstreet: posts small blind 100
onlyone2005: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kevstreet [Ah Ad]
BunnieLee: folds
pipfugl: folds
wickers3858: folds
kevstreet: calls 100
onlyone2005: raises 1345 to 1545 and is all-in
kevstreet: calls 1345
*** FLOP *** [Js 7c 3c]
*** TURN *** [Js 7c 3c] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Js 7c 3c 4h] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kevstreet: shows [Ah Ad] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
onlyone2005: shows [Ks Qs] (a pair of Fours)
kevstreet collected 3090 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3090 | Rake 0
Board [Js 7c 3c 4h 4c]
Seat 5: kevstreet (small blind) showed [Ah Ad] and won (3090) with two pair, Aces and Fours
Seat 7: onlyone2005 (big blind) showed [Ks Qs] and lost with a pair of Fours



In the early levels I don't think it's a sound play at all and I'll only try this when the situation seems right.

[Slim Pickens]

Disguising your hand only works if your opponents are thinking about what hand you might have as well as what hand they have. People at the lower SNG levels rarely think past their own cards, so disguising your hand by playing it sub-optimally rarely pays off.

If "good" players are doing it, then they probably suck. Why limp when 3 people still call a 4 BB raise? They're going to suck out because poker is rigged, but at least make then play incorrectly to do it so you can chat-berate them with a clear conscience.