Limping in with Pocket AA

[ferrengi]

I'll just sum up my thoughts on this situation.
If a bad beat happens to you, I don't think you should really care exactly how the bad beat occurs. Who cares if your AA was beaten by 7-2o or your AK lost to AQ.
As long as you were ahead when most of the money went in, you played the hand as best as you could and go unlucky.
Psychologically, I guess it is more painful to lose with AA since you got excited when you were dealt the hand fully expected to win it. But, you won't win a big pot with the hand unless you get into a confrontation with someone who also things they have a good hand.

So, even though your preflop chances are 4.5 to 1, you won't win a big pot with AA nearly that often.

Much the same logic applies if you got a favorable flop, got all-in and then got outdrawn but someone who was chasing a flush draw or straight draw. You played the hand properly and villain may or may not have been getting the right odds to draw. There is nothing you could have done about it and no reason to change the way you play the hand in the future.

If you limp your AA, and you end up in a limped pot with 5+ people in the hand, you just need to understand that you'll lose the hand more often than if you would've raised and narrowed the field somewhat.
As long as you understand the risks and you limp with other hands besides your AA, I think it is fine.

Personally, I rarely ever limp when I'm the first one in the pot. So people don't know whether my raise is with trash or a premium hand. Earlier in the tournament, I'll limp behind other limpers to try and see a cheap flop. With the deep stacks, I'm looking to stack someone rather than win a small pot.
Later on in the tourney and especially when there are antes, the value of winning a pot uncontested or narrowing the field goes up, so I will raise a lot more.