1st hand there is nothing I'm ahead of. It's a race at best and the SB's 8BB's may give you odds, but since I'm in good shape I'm dumping. I know that whenever I do that it's almost always AA or KK.

Ah so now your reversing the roles. 2nd hand I'm probably seeing the flop if I will still have over 20BB left afterwards. AA or KK is easily an all-in for me. I'm happy to take whatever money is out there after the raise and call or if I get a call I'm way ahead.

1. AQ is an easy fold there for me. At best I am on the bad side of a coinflip, at worst close to dead. The pot odds do not make up for a small dog/big dog situation.

2.a I just call since I get decent odds to draw to a set.

2.b With KK I push, AA either pish or make callable a re-raise.

Here's the scary thing that I've been finding. There is no trickery. Anyone who is willing to limp is willing to call a big raise after they've limped. They don't care where it comes from, they watch so much televised poker that they believe that if you raise, your bluffing, because nobody has a better hand than me. I'm not sure how to defend that and still protect good starting hands preflop. I'll give you an example that's hard to believe from an MTT I just got knocked out of. These hands took place consecutively, except for one hand between the last 2. You tell me what a decent poker player expect to see turned over on these hands.....

STAGE #366653477 TOURNEY ID 851822 HOLDEM MULTI NORMAL TOURNAMENT NO LIMIT $30 - 2006-03-31 18:01:49 (ET)
Table: 6 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 1 - SAXX ($1465 in chips)
Seat 2 - DJ_VINSON ($1715 in chips)
Seat 3 - SPYDER300 ($1600 in chips)
Seat 4 - XXMOHAMEDXX ($3570 in chips)
Seat 5 - MISTER BEEDS ($3205 in chips)
Seat 6 - WAYNE280 ($1830 in chips)
Seat 7 - PAYMEDAMONEY ($620 in chips)
Seat 8 - XSENERGY2 ($890 in chips)
Seat 9 - NORTHERN_GUY ($1795 in chips)
PAYMEDAMONEY - Posts small blind $30
XSENERGY2 - Posts big blind $60
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to PAYMEDAMONEY [3h]
NORTHERN_GUY - Folds
SAXX - Folds
DJ_VINSON - Calls $60
SPYDER300 - Folds
XXMOHAMEDXX - All-In(Raise) $3570 to $3570
MISTER BEEDS - Folds
WAYNE280 - Folds
PAYMEDAMONEY - Folds
XSENERGY2 - Folds
DJ_VINSON - All-In $1655
XXMOHAMEDXX - returned ($1855) : not called

Limped for $60, but calling off the whole stack. It was the raiser's 1st hand played at the table.

STAGE #366653803 TOURNEY ID 851822 HOLDEM MULTI NORMAL TOURNAMENT NO LIMIT $30 - 2006-03-31 18:02:26 (ET)
Table: 6 (Real Money) Seat #7 is the dealer
Seat 1 - SAXX ($1465 in chips)
Seat 2 - DJ_VINSON ($3520 in chips)
Seat 3 - SPYDER300 ($1600 in chips)
Seat 4 - XXMOHAMEDXX ($1855 in chips)
Seat 5 - MISTER BEEDS ($3205 in chips)
Seat 6 - WAYNE280 ($1830 in chips)
Seat 7 - PAYMEDAMONEY ($590 in chips)
Seat 8 - XSENERGY2 ($830 in chips)
Seat 9 - NORTHERN_GUY ($1795 in chips)
XSENERGY2 - Posts small blind $30
NORTHERN_GUY - Posts big blind $60
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to PAYMEDAMONEY [2c Js]
SAXX - Folds
DJ_VINSON - Folds
SPYDER300 - Calls $60
XXMOHAMEDXX - All-In(Raise) $1855 to $1855
MISTER BEEDS - All-In(Raise) $3205 to $3205
WAYNE280 - All-In $1830
PAYMEDAMONEY - Folds
XSENERGY2 - Folds
NORTHERN_GUY - Folds
SPYDER300 - Folds
MISTER BEEDS - returned ($1350) : not called

Very next hand gives away the previous hand as the raiser from that hand is obviously on tilt? Or not?

STAGE #366655264 TOURNEY ID 851822 HOLDEM MULTI NORMAL TOURNAMENT NO LIMIT $30 - 2006-03-31 18:04:28 (ET)
Table: 6 (Real Money) Seat #9 is the dealer
Seat 1 - SAXX ($1405 in chips)
Seat 2 - DJ_VINSON ($3850 in chips)
Seat 3 - SPYDER300 ($1360 in chips)
Seat 4 - JUSTRIPS ($2715 in chips)
Seat 5 - MISTER BEEDS ($6980 in chips)
Seat 7 - PAYMEDAMONEY ($590 in chips)
Seat 8 - XSENERGY2 ($800 in chips)
Seat 9 - NORTHERN_GUY ($1705 in chips)
SAXX - Posts small blind $30
DJ_VINSON - Posts big blind $60
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to PAYMEDAMONEY XXXX
SPYDER300 - Calls $60
JUSTRIPS - Calls $60
MISTER BEEDS - Folds
PAYMEDAMONEY - All-In(Raise) $590 to $590
XSENERGY2 - Folds
NORTHERN_GUY - Folds
SAXX - Folds
DJ_VINSON - Folds
SPYDER300 - Calls $530
JUSTRIPS - Calls $530

What do you expect to see turned over in these hands? Or better yet, count the all-ins and tell me how many JJ+ hands there were combined? And how do you defend against people willing to call with anything besides push with anything 99+ or AQ and AK and pray. This was a lower level buy-in MTT.

Alternatively, the limp re-raise will often times only succeed in getting more money in the pot with the best hand, not in ending the hand right there. Most times that's ok though if your KK and AA hold up as often as they are supposed to, but it's risking disaster to try it with anything less.

This crazy limp/call anything strategy is often visible after the flop too. Say you have AK and are in MP w/ one limper in front of you. You raise a healthy 5xBB and get called. Flop comes Q95 all different suits. Limper min-bets, you think he has garbage because of that bet and raise him a healthy amount. He immediately calls because why would he think you'd have a Q or big pair in your hand after you raised. It gets checked down and he shows A5 offsuit or even better yet, pocket 4's or 3's. Again, how do you defend. Checking the flop is too weak here, but bettting won't make him fold. Do you simply call his min-bet and look for your pot odds on hitting one of your 6 outs or is that too weak too?

Are you saying that if you make a healthy raise w/ AK and completely miss, you aren't going to make a continuation bet? Are you going to give up the pot to whoever called preflop right there? Your inviting a big turn bluff and giving a free card.

Are you willing to just be blinded down in tournaments when you don't find any big pairs? How do you try to survive when the deck is cold?