Playing AA...?

I'd 3bet a lot of good nut AAxx hands, and one's with good side cards, otherwise I'm just flatting and top-set mining

OOP I'm 3betting even less

There is a rule of thumb, try to get XY% of your stack in PF, and if you cannot, don't 3bet/4bet AAxx. I'm not a huge fan of this thinking, but it's probably not a bad idea to start with.

One thing to look at is how you can use short-stacks to your advantage to get a lot of money in PF, don't always pot-3bet/4bet AAxx because you can force the action to be closed if a SS jams behind you, try and make your raise size small enough so the action is re-opened should a shorter stack jam. This isn't as rare of a situation as you'd think and I see people misplay it frequently here.

Do you always 3-bet preflop

the opposite would be better

How literally

100%. You can maybe draw to a 223 flop also but 3 betting then felting on the T76 board will end up losing you buckets o money.

Originally Posted by drmcboy

Do you always 3-bet preflop

the opposite would be better

You prefer this to balancing by 3-betting a wider range? The advice I was getting was more toward balancing, but a mix of the two centered largely on position and sidecards as the determining factors for 3-betting AA seems more fitting to me.

Originally Posted by drmcboy

How literally

100%. You can maybe draw to a 223 flop also but 3 betting then felting on the T76 board will end up losing you buckets o money.

Right, but what about a K52 flop? Are you check-folding the flops that hit draws when you have AAxx but betting them when you 3-bet QJT9ss?

I'm usually only 3 betting the QJT9ss (types, I will 3 bet much less quality run downs) until I think people start thinking my 3 betting range is wider than AA. I'll 3 bet some legit AA hands for value as well. junky AA hands are toward the way back.

usually I would bet if I had raised pre and it came K52r no matter what I had except maybe like 7632. I would not expect three streets of value from AA on that board but one street I would bet is the flop.

You will find some "flops that hit draws" to bluff at I guess but you won't be betting AA for value when it comes KT7 with a flush draw unless you're playing against weak opponents you have control over (which doesn't seem like the point of the thread). That's even more true in 3 bet pots because people will put you on AA and CR hands like bottom two and non nut OESDs + pair type hands.

I think no 3 betting as a beginner is preferable to a wide 3 betting range (ESP OOP but even IP). And yes, I think never 3 betting AA is MUCH better option than always 3 betting AA.

As I always say it isn't a big deal, most people don't raise in this game. Also often times short stacks will force you to 3 bet even less or constantly play protected pots with SPRs < 3. The most important thing is not stack off with a bunch of un improved AA hands post flop, just like you wouldn't stack off very often with QJT9.