A case to be made for not raising or reraising, particularlly AAxx, preflop is shown in this hand.

***** Hand History for Game 2787420553 *****
B_Lord7 has left the table.
0/0 Omaha Game Table (PL) - Tue Sep 27 23:19:33 EDT 2005
Table Table 37481 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: cdeeps318 ( $19.20)
Seat 3: Nighthawk52 ( $8.05)
Seat 4: briachek ( $25.90)
Seat 5: KingJames43 ( $64.27)
Seat 6: oggywku ( $39.55)
Seat 7: bigsal23 ( $24.25)
Seat 8: rosinjw ( $11.70)
Seat 9: genwinters ( $5.49)
Seat 10: ROBUBLIND777 ( $0)
Nighthawk52 posts small blind (0.10)
briachek posts big blind (0.25)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to briachek [ Ad, 6c, Ah, 2h ]
KingJames43 calls (0.25)
oggywku raises (1) to 1
bigsal23 folds.
rosinjw folds.
genwinters folds.
cdeeps318 folds.
Nighthawk52 folds.
briachek calls (0.75)
KingJames43 calls (0.75)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ks, Ac, 7c ]
briachek checks.
KingJames43 checks.
oggywku bets (2)
briachek raises (8.95) to 8.95
KingJames43 folds.
oggywku raises (27.80) to 29.80
briachek calls (15.95)
briachek is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 4h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Qs ]
Creating Main Pot with $50.30 with briachek
** Summary **
Main Pot: $50.30 | Side Pot 1: $4.90 | Rake: $2.60
Board: [ Ks Ac 7c 4h Qs ]
briachek balance $50.30, bet $25.90, collected $50.30, net +$24.40 [ Ad 6c Ah 2h ] [ three of a kind, aces -- Ad,Ah,Ac,Ks,Qs ]
oggywku balance $13.65, bet $30.80, collected $4.90, lost -$25.90 [ Kh Kd Qh Tc ] [ three of a kind, kings -- Ac,Kh,Kd,Ks,Qs ]

Ok, so maybe he couldn't get away from this hand even if I did raise or reraise preflop with AA but by not doing it, I think I made it nearly impossible for him to fold this flop unless he KNOWS me so well that I don't raise at all. If I had reraised, he could put me on AAxx and possibly get away from the hand.

By not raising and playing well postflop, no one can really put me on the hand which adds a lot of deception and gets me paid off. Since there are more people in the pot and I'm nutpeddling, there are many second best hands that people can't get away from that will pay me off.

Cons - There are more people in the pots so more draws to avoid so I will be sucked out more. The key to countering this is not paying off when you are beat.

Another con is not being able to protect your hand as much with big bets which also means I win smaller pots when no one hits anything and I do or I can't make people make a big bet mistake on the flop, they have to do it on the turn. I can help counter this by having good reads on when people will bet and check raise the hell out of them.

Ok, there is some basic points on that. Discuss!

I couldn't agree with you more. I mix up my AAxx plays a lot so I think that helps disguise my hand better. It feels great when you hit your set and you end up getting the middle set's stack (unless he hits the 1 outer). It's so deceptive that the guy who hit the one outer said "I didn't figure you for top set"

I think the long term benefits not raising all the time since number one, people can put you on that hand easier if you raise. Secondly, the flop won't help you a lot of the times so I like to see cheap flops and play post flop since I excel at that. Third, if you do happen to hit your set, it is very well hidden and the donkeys at the 25 tables are usually stupid enough to chase and pay you off. In other words, I think the long term expectation from limping is better than raising simply because of taking whole stacks when you hit your hand and another person gets enough of the board too.

The best part is when you hold AAxx and the flop is A99 and you flop the nuts (well almost) and someone plays along with their 9. That shit makes me smile.

Raising with just AA to me in my limited play is -EV. I think the xx part of that requires a lot more substance for redraw posibilities.

I however have taken the attitude that I raise like in limit poker. Not with the expectation to win but because I have a good chance of winning if I hit the flop.

Of course I am playing Omaha with a ton of calling stations.

Where do you guys play primarily. I didn't find the action to be that good at party? Pokerstars was pretty good but I only played the 50 dollar PL.

I am playing 100 and 200 PL at Bodog and they are terrible.

Fun game I am enjoying it.

i'm playing PLO25 on party almost exclusively.

Yeah, I mix it up with AA plenty. Probably raise 60% or so of AAxx hands. I don't tend to raise out of position, so most AAxx in early seats get limped, which I sometimes do in LP either when there's a mega-LAG in the blinds or to mix things up. That said, I raise other hands in LP, inlcuding the occasional low wrap, and coordinated high hands, both with and without pairs. I think if you ONLY raise AAxx you're giving astute players a very good excuse to call with a wide range of hands to snap you off for a big one on the flop.

Thing is, I VERY rarely re-raise any hand preflop - now and again I'll re-raise a massive suited wrap in a multiway pot, and very occasionally AKKx when a short stack is virtually all in and I can get the majority of another tall stack's money in. I re-raise AAxx tremendously rarely, and almost always when 50% or more of my stack (or my opponents stack) will be put in by the raise. If I'm just sat with position to the raiser, I simply don't think that's a good enough reason to give away what your hand is with a re-raise if you can only get 10-20% of that stack in as a marginal preflop favourite.