Hi MG

It goes without saying that this is a very good situation to be in! Unless I'm playing against the tightest of players I think its best to reraise here. I understand that smooth calling and then check raising the flop may be a good idea sometimes, but I think the best play with AA is to try and get as much money in as you can preflop. If you do smooth call and the flop brings one or two paints then your opponant can put alot of pressure on you.

If you are going to re-re-raise I think Its best just to push... Alot of people will see this as a weaker move than raising to $40.

On a side issue, if your opponant can easily put you on AA if you reraise here maybe you should try and be more aggressive prefolp with AK-JJ.

Aquifex

Mad

I will flat call in position against aggressive post-flop players. Out of position, I'm more likely to reraise.

I'm not sure if the only options should be flat calling or reraising it to $40. First off it goes without saying that if its not heads up a healthy reraise is in order. Otherwise I think if the player will reraise with more than KK & QQ then you should reraise perhaps another $15. He will certainly call with any hand, unless it was just a pure bluff in which case you were unlikely to get an action when ahead after calling. However on the times he has hands like AK, AQ, JJ or TT there are too many flops which will get close to zero from a solid player.

The only time I like this play is when I can put the player on KK or QQ. Additionally there are many players who will play for their stack with AK preflop but not an additional dime on a missed flop. You need to charge these players the max.

In the NL games that I frequent, there tends to be alot of action, 90% of the pots are raised. If I raise in EP and am re-raised, a re-raise by me defines my hand too clearly for my tastes especially to an experienced player. Therefore, I typically limp and allow someone else to do the raising and I put in the first re-raise. Quite often I am going to be re-raised by KK-JJ and at that point they may find themselves pot-committed to my subsequent all-in. For instance, if we both have a $200 stack in front of us and the blinds are $1/$2 I would come in for $2 and a typical raise might be to $10. I raise from $25-$40 depending upon the player and he makes it $100 with KK, QQ or JJ. Now I go all-in. Conversely, if I bring it in for $10 from EP and am raised by a good player to $25-$40 and I make it $100 - he is very likely going to let it go and I win the minimum.

If one is in a game where there is not alot of pre-flop raising and you can't risk checking up front, then I agree with the original posters strategy as long as you are taking the flop heads up. This of course is predicated on the assumption that you have the ability to put your opponent on a hand accurately. The chances of a flop and board (all 5 cards) having a jack or better when you are holding AA is: 69.5% and 86.9% respectively. These numbers are too high if your opponent plays much better than you after the flop.

Blade,

In response to your post, since we are talking about solid players, I doubt he would re-raise my EP raise with hands like AQ or TT. This means that logically, he would only re-raise with 4 hands: KK, QQ, AK, and JJ. Out of those hands, the only hand that he might be willing to play for his stack preflop is KK. If I'm that guy and a fairly tight player goes over the top of my re-raise from EP, I'm mucking QQ, AK, and JJ everytime. There are not that many players that are essential calling stations but become rocks after the flop. However, it has been my experience that when the flop comes all rags, people have an even tougher time folding hands such as QQ or KK than they would preflop.

This means that logically, he would only re-raise with 4 hands: KK, QQ, AK, and JJ

Well - it's logically possible (though unlikely) he has AA too

If you are going to smooth call to the flop and plan to lead into your opponent, wouldn't it be more deceptive to lead out strong? If you check raise the flop or use a weak lead your opponent is likely going to be able to get away from the hand because it makes it look like you have a set (or an overpair if he thinks you would do this with A-A or K-K). By leading out strong you represent a weaker overpair and will likely get more action from your opponent, giving you a better chance at his stack.
Also, since he reraised you can probably put him on Q-Q or better (don't solid players usually advocate taking cheap flops with J-J by calling a raise instead of re-raising most of the time?) so what happens if a K or Q fall and you don't hit your A? If he is playing back at you how can you be sure he didn't hit his set? You may be making it obvious what you hold, but it is generally best to get as much in preflop with A-A as you can.