Preflop/flop raising strategy (longish)

[RapidEvolution]

large as in...6BB? 8? I'm assuming this is with overpair/TP hands?

[Sounded Simple]

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EP: any PP (varies by table)
AQs+, AQo+

MP1/MP2: added ATs+.AJo,KQs,KQo
MP3: added ATo, A8s,A9s, KJs, QJs, QJo
CO: added any A-xs, A6o+, KTs
Button:Any suited ace, any suited king, K9o+,QTo+, JTo,JTs,T9s,98s,87s


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I play tigher at the lack and looser at the front (insert pun here).

First In -
In the first 3 seats I raise first in any PP and AK, sometimes AQs.
In MP I'm adding in KQs and not much else unless the remaining players are nitty or my C-Bet powers are working well against them.
I just dont like AJ or KQ in EP, what are you hoping for post flop? Usually TPTK at best and thats tricky OOP. Call me a nit but I like my decisions easy.

In the CO and button I look at the blinds and how they play, against restealers and callstations I keep it reasonably solid by adding in 67s+, some Ax sooted and AT+
Against donks I raise even wider (since they defend their blind) and use my C-Bet spell against their rags that miss most flops.
Against nits who dont re-steal I will sometimes get cheekey with a very wide range.

Behind limpers -
Im starting to raise much wider in this spot as is often advised here.
When I first made this adjustment it sucked because I was raising in MP with SC and ending up OOP in a raised pot, now I keep this for the CO/Button - so far it seems good although my sample is pretty small for this adjustment.
I will do this with connectors, suited one and two gappers, face cards and if I think I can get away with it (i.e. I have been nitty so far) and the situations is right I will move with rags.

Look at it from the limpers point of view - lets say your in MP with JTs or 44, its two limpers to you so you limp (fine IMO). Whats going through your head? I bet its "hope the button/blinds dont raise". So when your the button or blinds RAISE and raise wide.
Caveat - watch out for donks or tricky bastards who limp big pairs. Dont go crazy raising limpers or anyone watching can exploit, all things in moderation.
Look out for people that are 40/12 or 60/16, what range are they limping? Its usually not strong so raise it up against them.

For a raise.
I found a leak in my game with PT - cold calling PP for set value.
These days I look for the following things when setmining raises -
- Position (calling in EP is especially bad)
- Multiway action (you want villans to hit top pair or better so the more the merrier)
- >20 times effective stack. (Dont setmine shortstacks LDO and 4bb with 100bb behind is marginal IMO)
- Villan who stacks off TP and is agressive (Thankfully plentiful)

Also I fold anything less than AQ to a raise OOP (exception Blind vs Blind).

One other thing that I have noticed and I dont know if its just my imagination or not.
When you have grown to a largish stack (say >150bb) raises and c-bets seem to get more respect

Also a few more points.
- Keep your own image in mind, HUD players will give you a credit for a hand even when you raise rags. At the same time people eventually get sick of blind steal and c-bets and adjust so "feather the throttle"
- PT is your freind, you can break down your hands by position to look for leaks.
- Im by no means an authority (my win rate isnt much higher than yours) but Im just putting this out there so if anyone thinks Im wrong fire away [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[threads13]

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large as in...6BB? 8? I'm assuming this is with overpair/TP hands?

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Yeah, like 6BB. I am in the experimenting stage. It is kind of a metagame thing. At first NO ONE calls and then they start calling. If no one will call a large raise then it makes sense to occasionally semi-bluff raise. It can be either premium hands or SC and Axs type hands.

Just another edge to exploit.

[Sounded Simple]

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Seems good. Any thoughts on the EP range/raise size?

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Same idea only you just start to estimate who will be in and go from there. If you have no idea you just have to estimate.

FWIW, I have been playing with making some large raises from EP.

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The nice thing about raising limpers is that you can adjust the raise size a little more.

I remember when I tried the SPR raise sizing it seemed like everyone was thinking "WTF thats more than 4bb open raise" and folding every time I had a hand.

[Sounded Simple]

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large as in...6BB? 8? I'm assuming this is with overpair/TP hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, like 6BB. I am in the experimenting stage. It is kind of a metagame thing. At first NO ONE calls and then they start calling. If no one will call a large raise then it makes sense to occasionally semi-bluff raise. It can be either premium hands or SC and Axs type hands.

Just another edge to exploit.

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I like.
Do you ease off on the C-Bet% since they probably have higher calling range?

[Chargers In 07]

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Behind limpers -
Im starting to raise much wider in this spot as is often advised here.

[/ QUOTE ] I think behind one limper you should just pretend he's not there. Raise your normal range and stealing range. With 2 or more it's a judgement call.

[toymach776]

With the exception of the 2x BB range, I like your raise sizing guidelines. I dont think that minraising is ever a sound strategy. This is a good post and I posted something about this a while ago, generating some good discussion. You can see it here.
I play somewhat robotically because I 6 table and need to start considering varying pf raise sizes in order to become less exploitable as I move up.

[toymach776]

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You might be c-betting in the wrong spots btw. If you have position and you raise preflop with AQ, TAG BB calls, and flop comes K Q 5 rainbow, do you c-bet? You probably shouldn't.

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why? that looks like a good cbet spot to me.

[threads13]

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large as in...6BB? 8? I'm assuming this is with overpair/TP hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, like 6BB. I am in the experimenting stage. It is kind of a metagame thing. At first NO ONE calls and then they start calling. If no one will call a large raise then it makes sense to occasionally semi-bluff raise. It can be either premium hands or SC and Axs type hands.

Just another edge to exploit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like.
Do you ease off on the C-Bet% since they probably have higher calling range?

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Haha, I don't know. I've only been doing it a week. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I don't know that there calling range is necessarily higher though. It really depends on the particular opponent, but perhaps it is more narrow though. Against a tight player I would think this would give us more of a reason to c-bet sense there range becomes mostly set-mining and we can consistently play correctly and force them to play incorrectly.

[threads13]

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With the exception of the 2x BB range, I like your raise sizing guidelines. I dont think that minraising is ever a sound strategy. This is a good post and I posted something about this a while ago, generating some good discussion. You can see it here.
I play somewhat robotically because I 6 table and need to start considering varying pf raise sizes in order to become less exploitable as I move up.

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I think never minraising isn't a sound strategy.