according to lyle berman in SS2, you should NEVER raise in ep because of you positional disadvantage and you can't put a big enough raise to get many people to fold.

I like squid's post a lot. Some very useful and valid points there, and it agrees with my game a lot.

kdiddy, here's a few lines with AA that I generally take preflop:

1) Don't raise in early position. I occasionally get jiggy with double suited aces and other monster hands like KQJTds from EP, just because they're so strong you really want to be able dig a big bet out if you hit the flop (which happens significantly often with these hands). Hands like AA with two middle cards and a single suit really need to see some fairly specific flops to continue, so out of position you're looking to let others into the pot and hope to hit big. It is difficult to drive semi-bluff on a loose table out of position with aces, so don't put yourself in the position of having to do so.

2) Never re-raise preflop with aces unless you can get 60%+ of your stack in, and unless you think it'll resolve the pot into a fairly short-handed duel. Only exception is if there's an ultra-LAG who will get all in with any 4 cards, you're sure he'll re-raise until all his chips are gone, and there's no more than maybe one more player in the pot.

3) Raise in LP only with strong AA hands, that is, ones that have side cards that aren't total bricks and hopefully have at least one ace suited. Thus, I don't raise something like AA78 unsuited if there's a number of limpers (I won't get it heads up and i'm looking for very specific flops, eg one with an ace, if i'm to bet it against 3 or 4 callers). Hands like AA with two more royal cards, AA with a second pair, AA with one ace suited and two connectors on the side, these are the AA hands I raise for value in LP.

4) If the table is ultra-loose and 6-10 players are seeing every flop almost regardless of preflop raising, with the short stacks you have online I don't think you should be raising ANY hand preflop. These conditions are very rare though, outside of the penny tables.

5) If the table contains a few tighter players, a few looser ones, basically a decent mix, VPIP maybe 30-40% or so, and people who fold to a raise, you can look to raise most AA hands in LP because you'll often get to a flop only 2 or 3 handed with a hand that plays well in position. Then look for good semi-bluffable flops to make the continuation bet (i.e. if the flop comes 89T and you're holding nothing but AA, I wouldnt be inclined to bet it even in position).

Hope this helps.

Bump

Sorry I need to print these out later and don't want to have to go digging