I started a thread about this a while back when someone pmed me asking about it..
here's the thread
here's my pm back to him (from the thread)..no one commented on it, so feel fre to give comments now
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alright, here's his question and my response..
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first question, i dont understand raising to only 500 at 100/200. can u explain that? do antes change this?
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I'm assuming that you mean 2.5BBs instead of the typical 3-4xBB raise..(am I correct here)..
there are a few reasons for this..
first, I am assuming that your stack is big enough that you can make this raise, and still have enough chips left to c-bet, and fold to a raise if you don't hit..also that you have a mediocre hand that is worthy of a "steal" here essentially..like AT or KQ or something in the CO...if these conditions are not true..it is usually better to push or fold with a mediocre hand..
--basically all of these situations are different..but I'm going to give you my ideas on what should be considered..
it would actually be a good idea to make a thread entitled "what are the reasons to raise to t500 instead of t600 at the t100/t200 level?"..you should get others opinions on this as well..I'm not sure if they re the same as mine..as I don't remember ever discussing this in detail with anyone else..nevertheless you will see a lot of posts telling people to raise a little less than 3xBB...and these are he main resons..I believe.
1)first remember that in most of these situations, the main goal is to pick up the blinds and antes..it is nearly always better to pick up the blinds than get allin with someone..even if you are a slight favorite (fold equity is usually the most important factor with anything other than premium hands)..I'll get back to this in a minute..
2)(preflop decisions)..raising less gives you more room to fold preflop to a reraiser (you will see many posts where the poster raises to t600 with a "decent" hand like AT or KQ say (or to t300 or more in the t50/t100 level) then gets reraised allin for an amount that puts him in a hard spot..since he is most likely beat, but he is being offered close to correct odds to call...so people will respond to the post that he should have raised to t500 instead..since he could then safely fold to the reraise where he is most likely behind..
3)(postflop decisions)..if you don't have enough chips to raise preflop, then c-bet post flop (most fo the time I should say..this isn't always necessary, but it is just meant to imply that it is all about how many chip you have in relation to the blinds)..and fold to a raise, you really shouldn't be raising to begin with with a mediocre hand...you should either be folding or pushing all in depending on whether or not pushing is profitable...
once again, raising less preflop saves you chips preflop (as well as postflop since you c-bet will not need to be as big)
these ideas are both basically extensions of the "10BB" rule..but here was can manipulate our preflop raise amount to accomodate our situation...it's all about making the play that is most profitable...and some times stealing the blinds is most profitable, but we have an amount of chips that makes it hard for us to do that...
a smaller raise allows us to do this with a smaller stack than if we made a larger preflop raise...
alright now back to #1...
#s 2 and 3 would be pretty meaningless if our smaller preflop raise affected our ability to steal the blinds by a large margin...since the majority of the value of our raise preflop is from talkint the blinds without a confrontation..
however, most STT players agree that raising to t500 or t550 instead of to t600 or more..does not affect fold equity by a very large margin...and that the added benefits of this smaller raise as discussed above...DO make up for the slight loss of Fold equity here
all of this is also applicable at the t50/t100 (although to a slightly lesser extent IMO) and basically at any level above that if the effective stack is not too small to make a raise and consider folding (which doesn't happen too often above the t100/t200 level..but it does occasionally)..so raising to t1000 at the t200/t400 level is also the norm if there are stacks of say t4500 of more..
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