Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Attempting a Limp-Reraise With Aces
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube several years ago, and recently he decided to switch up the format to begin featuring footage from live small- and medium-stakes cash games and tournaments.
In the episode shown below, Little returns once more to analyze a hand from a $5/$5/$10 no-limit hold’em cash game played at Stones Gambling Hall.
This one starts with the player AZ picking up A♥A♦ in early position and choosing not to raise, but to limp. That prompts Little to talk about (1) why limping with aces in a small stakes cash games isn't generally recommended, and (2) the need to be wary of "tricky limpers" who might have wide limping ranges.
It folds to Dan in the cutoff who raises to $60 with K♦Q♦ and Baysy calls from the small blind with 8♦8♣. Dave O then makes a loose call with Q♥10♣ from the big blind (something Little explains isn't such a good idea).
Action moves to The Wolf who had straddled, and with his hand obscured he reraises big to $340. With about $1,300 in his stack, AZ is in a prime spot to limp-reraise, and he does so to $810, a play Little explains probably shouldn't work against savvy opponents.
It folds back to The Wolf who is actually getting decent pot odds, but who has to realize AZ is especially strong — and likely has aces — after having limp-reraised into a big field as he has done.
But The Wolf decides to call, making the pot about $1,800 with AZ having only a little under $500 behind. Then on a nine-high flop all of the money understandably gets in the middle, and we eventually see The Wolf had K♥Q♥.
Little spends some time talking about The Wolf's play in this one while also discussing further the potential dangers of limping with aces, covering a few different concepts along the way:
- starting hand selection (and preflop strategy)
- position
- limping
- limp-reraising
- pot odds
Take a look:
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,900,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
