How do you play when they just call?
 

Decided to head down to the local B&M to play some NL. I play the NL 25 online occassionally and have a decent idea of what I'm doing. Anyways, I pick up AQs in ep and raise. Standard table raise was 5x BB so thats what I did. 4 callers behind me. I miss the flop and have to check fold. A few hands later I end up w/AQo otb, 4 limpers I raise 6x BB again, 3 callers, miss the flop and had to fold. AQs a few hands later and a simliar thing happened. Online doesn't seem quite as loose and raises will usually get it HU or 3 handed. How do I proceed when raises will just bloat the pot? Is limping in this situation better than raiseing hoping to push people around on the flop?

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

If rasing X doesn't get it heads up then start raising X+1BB then X+2BB and see what works. Don't go mad from EP with this as you'll be committing a lot more of your stack than you're used to online but in position start to see what works.

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

Raise more and/or try a cbet.

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

sometimes when you are playing in these very loose-passive games with tons of calling stations there is nothing you can do but wait wait wait wait wait until you hit a flop. when you do, you will make lots of money.

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

see heres the thing, the way the stacks are set up, you can only buy in for 33xbb. So.....how much can you really raise pf? I don't want to raise 10 BB b/c thats committing so much of my stack to the pot so early

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

33BB? That's awful.

There's no problem with raising 10BB, if it gets callers from inferior holdings you're a long term winner. I don't see a problem with pushing after a couple of limpers either, picking up 5-6BB with these stacks isn't a bad result.

If you hate variance though, you can just limp in and stack one or two of 'em when you hit a flop.

Re: How do you play when they just call?
 

Yeah, I wasn't digging the 33 BBs either but was afraid to play higher b/c of my lack of experience. I understand the underlying concept that raising 10bb and getting called by inferior holdings is good but....

1) I'm better than these people post flop. W/the stack so short, don't I want to maximize my advantage and trap them postflop?

2) When they make those calls, they aren't making a terrible call most of the time. If they call w/a hand that doesn't have an A or Q they're only a 2:3 dog. Also what do you do when the flop misses? I'd hate to bet pushing w/A high here just b/c I've forced myself to protect this pot. I've only got ~20 BBs left I raise 10