AA early in tournament - best way to proceed

[Frank Zappy]

With a lot of callers the best way to proceed is...cautiously!

Be willing to let it go an a coordinated Flop or a flop of all paint. Ideally we LOVE to see another A drop.

(Oh BTW, I heard that thought this wasn't shown on ESPN at the WSOP, Montel Williams had AA, flopped a set and still doubled up a guy who played suited rags, called an all in and rivered his flush).

Sure it's disappointing to have to let AA go but you can't fall in love with it especially if it's early and the action tells you you're behind.

Personally, I love seeing a lot of flops in the early stages for this very reason; people overplay overpairs and look for an excuse to get stacked in the early rounds so they can have a "bad beat" story.

[TroutMaskReplica]

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Again it could be me just being a little bit negative about AA early on - I literally had a guy call a 10xBB raise w/K2os - flop K62 rainbow - continuation bet and he pushes - I fold figuring he made a set and he shows his sh!t hand.

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folding there is terrible btw

[goose023]

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Again it could be me just being a little bit negative about AA early on - I literally had a guy call a 10xBB raise w/K2os - flop K62 rainbow - continuation bet and he pushes - I fold figuring he made a set and he shows his sh!t hand.

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folding there is terrible btw

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Depends on if you want to go broke in the second level of a tournament, and every time he did this (4 times in the past 2 orbits) he had 2 pair or better - and had busted each player overplaying top pair.

[Cleverbeans]

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Depends on if you want to go broke in the second level of a tournament, and every time he did this (4 times in the past 2 orbits) he had 2 pair or better - and had busted each player overplaying top pair.

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If I'm going to go broke, this is when I want to do it, so I don't invest a ton of time just to go broke on the bubble. You might have felt you had a good read on this guy, but 90% of the time you're up against AK, KQ, KJ or some other weak hand especially if you're at a level where 10XBB raises get called with K2.

Also, if you want to be able to let go AA after the flop, then don't raise so much preflop. You've invested a lot in the hand just to let it go, so try to keep the raises more reasonable so you can let go with less sting.

In the early levels when a lot of 3X raises are getting called I raise 4-5X depending on position and then c-bet on the flop. I'm never folding to one all-in on a rainbow flop, if the board was monotone and I didn't have the right A and there was an all-in and a call in front of me, I can probably let go. Otherwise, call, say "nice hit, gl all" and load up another.

[Win.by.TKo]

If you have played this level of tourney before and have seen the majority of players call AI bets p/f, then I'd be tempted to just push w/ AA.

Outside of that, a 4xBB+1BB/limper bet would be my normal play.