[DrGonzo]

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Gonzo, I simply think that if the only hands I am consistantly limping are small pocket pairs, thats giving away way too much information to anyone paying attention, and it can be avoided by simply coming in for 3.5xBB like I would with anything else I would be playing from that position. Think about how laughably obvious some situations become when you limp/call a raise with a SPP and hit a set (even though many bad players will still ignore this, you mentioned "thinking" opponents). Against certain players and with some of the tables you describe, I definitely won't disagree that you are simply better off folding some of the hands in that range, but even though you can narrow it down in certain situations, that range of hands is still very selective.

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You certainly make a good point about badly disguising small PPs and sets (though you can of course use your opponents ability to "read" you to convince him that you hit the set when you actually missed). When I play against thinking opponents I do mix in raises with small PPs and suited connectors and I will occasionally limp with a raising hand as well.

The tricky part is when you have a mixed table with one maniac, one calling station, two weak-tighties and one pro or something like that. I tend to focus on the calling stations and the maniacs though. These are the ones who will give me most the most value and the ones that will be playing the most hands. If I have to give up some value because of that when I'm up against the pro, so be it. It gives me more to maximize profit against the fish.

You're right about me being too gun-shy in EP though. I think I could benefit from loosing up my raising standards more often than I do. I've thought about it before and after reading this thread I'm convinced about it. Most people put too little value in position, but I've gone the other way I guess [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

I still think raising any suited ace UTG is too much. Of course flopping two pair or low trips will make you happy, but that won't happen too often. Flopping one pair will certainly not make you happy and playing a flush draw OOP isn't that juicy (if you are re-raised and can push, it is pretty nice, but if you are called it sucks).

Good discussion!