I asked myself “can AA ever be behind equity-wise, preflop, in a cashgame?” I managed to find the answer but I thought I’d leave it to you as a puzzle.
AA is a favorite against every other hand. But if you’re in a multiway pot it’s possible to be an underdog to win. For example, if you are in a 5-way all in preflop pot with AA vs 98s vs 54s vs 22 vs JJ, the AA has 40% equity - so 60% of the time AA will lose. Even so it is way ahead of all the other hands - the next best is 98s with just 17% equity.
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I will put it this way.
The more players in that hand with stacks larger than yours the less value those pocket aces have and also depends on if that is a tourney or ring and if you are in the money round or not.
If you don’t have a stack big enough to scare a few people off the hand with an all in on those pocket rockets you are better off trying to see the flop and drag in more players chips with some creative betting.
So short answer is yes AA can be behind in equity.
agreed on the multi way example. but still, i would want to get the pot as big as i can get it with AA preflop, no matter if i get 1 all-in or 9. (of course this only works with an all-in situation, without it i much rather get only 1 or 2 opponents)
to use the example of @love2eattacos when i get that 5 way all-in i only have 40% equity left. but that 40% i will quintiple up. meaning i have an EV of +100%! which is the equivalent of hitting the unbeatable stone cold nuts against 1 opponent and get him all-in!
besides the fact that it’s the best hand, the the best thing about AA is that it’s not just ahead of any other hand, it strongly dominating it. the worst hand to face when holding AA is 56s. but even in that case you are even more ahead then in regular dominating hands (like AK vs AQ for example).
another huge advantage is that the most common hand that grant you value (big aces) with have the highest equity of all possibilities (about 92%).
there is only 1 downside to AA imo, which is that you hold 2 blockers to potential hands that get you a huge pot
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I will say YES.
You are behind preflop whenever another player in the hand holds the other two aces.
Something seen in tournaments a lot…
You’re on the BB with AA. Someone goes allin for 5 BB, the next shoves 10BB, then 20BB, then 40BB. It’s never that neat, but you get the idea.
This isn’t as bad as it looks, because you really only have to beat that last guy to break even, and it’s all gravy after that.
If there is another AA hand, that reduces the equity of AA a lot.
In AA vs AA vs KK vs QQ vs JJ, AA is still ahead. But if you have AA, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT - Then KK will be the best hand, QQ next best and AA third.
In AA vs AA vs KsQs vs JdTd vs 9h8h, AA is the best hand. But add 7c6c and AA becomes the worst hand
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Yes, when you are dealt pocket AA and the site freezes you out and auto-folds them for you. If you can’t get in the hand, you have zero equity 
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