OK, now I know this raises a lot of debate, but I wanted to describe one situation where I think slow-playing AA is almost always a good idea. That is FROM THE BUTTON. The first point is that you already get a good read on what others are playing given the pre-flop raising activity. Second, you get a look at the flop to see if it is dangerous. Third, you will often get the raiser to continuation bet when he misses the flop. Finally, it disguises a monster hand, enticing KK, QQ, JJ to push all-in if the flop comes right. One example:
From the button, the table folds around to a pot raise ($14) and I just call with AA. Flop comes Tc4c2s. Raiser bets the pot, $35. I just call. Turn is the 8h. He bets out $105 with $325 more behind. I min-raise to $210 and he pushes all-in with JJ. When I turn over my AA, I'm feeling pretty good. There's probably no way I get his $500 off him any other way.
Thoughts?: I expose myself to the guy hitting his set (16% of the time by the turn), but I still like these odds as opposed to winning the blinds + one, maybe two raises pre-flop.
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haha - your title made me laugh but here's my thoughts. Firstly - obviously you need to judge your opponent in any of these situations and different opponents will require different tactics....but essentially, why I think your play is dangerous to the average person:
he has effectively lost $148ish - what has made this particular hand profitable is the fact that he feels he is still ahead when you limit raise him because of your slow play. however - as you say you have to dodge that 16% to make his set...but one thing also, is you have to avoid any other over cards which will scare him increasing the likelihood of this being profitable to around 50%. (as in I doubt he would call that limit raise with a K on the board once you've called his flop bet)
i'm not saying this was the wrong play in this situation but i wouldn't worry about making money out of KK or QQ on an average online table by reraising preflop. ("it disguises a monster hand, enticing KK, QQ, JJ to push all-in if the flop comes right." - surely there might be more chance of them pushing preflop than on the flop, especially if it's all in)
still i do slow play aces some times...but only when the time is right and I want to know exactly what my opponent has before I start spinning up the pot.
good discussion topic nonetheless
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