[ballen]

Just looking for some opinions on how you would play AA in Pot Limit in an EP situation.
Here is the scenario:

You are playing Pot-limit. Lets say for example it is 5-10 blinds. You are in first position and get dealt AA.
Do you raise UTG, do you raise the max, which in this case would only be up to $40. Or do you call, hoping someone else will raise and you coming back over the top? Or (any other option)...
Now consider this. The table is very loose. There are usually several (at least 4-6) callers preflop, even for $40. The preflop action isn't usually very aggressive. There is usually only a preflop raise about 40% of time, the rest of the time there are 6-7 limpers in for $10, and even those times it is raised it only gets raised to $30 or $40 and still gets several callers.
so do you raise the minimum to $40, and hope to knock out as many people as possible? Do you just call, hoping someone else will raise it and you can come back over the top to knock people out?

I faced this situation last night and lost with my AA raising to $40 UTG, and I think I made a mistake by doing so. I did make a mistake in that hand once I found out what everyone had, but in general I think this is a very tricky situation. Here was my thinking and what happened and why it was played wrong:

I wanted to knock out as many people as possible, so to do that I raised the maximum up to $40 UTG. I was scared that if I just called, there would be no raises and I would get 7 limpers in for the flop, which is the worst case situation. My hope was that my raise would limit it to 4 or less people. Well I got 6 callers for my $40. The flop came Ks,5c,4c. I bet out $100. Immediately to my left the pot was raised to $400. The player after him called the $400, but I knew I had him beat, he is a bad player who will call that bet with a flush draw or something random hoping to suckout. Another player thought for a long time and folded (he folded AK, which is significant to why I made a mistake). I thought for a long time and called, half knowing I was beat, half putting the guy on AK, or the K with 4 clubs. The turn is the 9s. Checked around. The river is a red 2. I check, the flop raiser bets $250, the guy behind him is all-in for $130, The pot is so big now, I have to call the $250 with my AA. He flips over 44, for the set.

I played this wrong for several reasons. I think I should have flat called UTG, if it gets raised, I come back over the top, unless it is a LP raise to the max ($70 or $80), in which case I may just call if I think he may only get 0 or 1 other caller besides me. If I just call and there are no raises, I can easily get away from AA cheaply on the flop, although I may still get stuck in the hand by a random, non-threatening looking board hitting (people were playing everything for 1 bet, 35, 46, 83, etc.). In this particular hand, the guy who had AK in MP would have raised, and from playing with him many times previously, he most likely would have raised the max to around $60. I believe he would have still gotten 2 callers behind him before it got to me. Then I should have put in the reraise to somewhere between $100-$120, which would have kocked out the winning hand 44, got AK to call, and probably knock the remaining players. And then with a flop like K54, it is hard for him to get away from AK and I have him right where I want him.

Of course this is all hindsight, and unfortunately it cost me $700 to learn how to play it.

But I was just wondering how YOU would play AA UTG or even in second position when playing Pot Limit, given the above situation of how the players at the table were playing.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

by the way, one last thing I forgot to add in, my AA was black, so even with the 2 clubs and spade flop, I wasn't too worried about the flush out there knowing I had one, and if I hit another Ace I would not give someone a flush.