Hi all, i am new and i have few questions.

[Hitsurume]

Rant, I got a question for you that I never really understood. Why would you reraise with AA/KK? Is it to give improper odds for set values? or is it to define a villians potential hand?

To me, i'd only reraise a potential nit, anyone else I think I would be chasing out with that reraise/3bet.

[Rant]

[ QUOTE ]
Rant, I got a question for you that I never really understood. Why would you reraise with AA/KK? Is it to give improper odds for set values? or is it to define a villians potential hand?

To me, i'd only reraise a potential nit, anyone else I think I would be chasing out with that reraise/3bet.

[/ QUOTE ]


It does depend on the situation. That's why I said 'most of the time' - which should be included in all poker advice. 8)

A re-raise does 2 things.

1) It will probably get you heads-up against the raiser. AA/KK play better against fewer opponents.

2) It gets more $ in the pot. You are almost certainly ahead and you want to get $ in there. If they fold then you just won a small pot risk-free. If they call then you have gotten them to put in $ when they are behind.


As an example - If you are the button and you just call then there will be 7.5 bets in the pot and BB will only have to put in 2BB. Those are pretty attractive odds. Do you want BB, who could have nearly any two cards, in the hand? I generally don't. He is only going to give you $ if he hits something and you have no idea what his cards are.


A re-raise does define villain's hand a bit but probably not too much. Most villains will call the re-raise with most hands they would raise with. If you raise to 9BB they will be getting better than 2:1 to call you. Most players will call.

You can only 'give improper odds for set value' if you take the stack sizes into account. Villain should play for a set any time he will likely win about 8x his pre-flop bet or more. If you re-raise then he can probably count on you being MORE willing to pay him off if his set hits. Unless one of your stacks is small the re-raise probably won't make calling for set value bad for villain.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a good time to not re-raise with AA/KK. Maybe when you are BB and everyone but the raiser has folded. Even in this case though I probably want to raise and just take the pot right there. Being out of position sucks.