raising limpers vs 3betting

[jay_shark]

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is it correct to have different ranges for 3betting and raising limpers preflop? why? I have been thinking about this alot, and cannot reach a conclusion. my gut instinct is that you should raise limps wider than you would three bet, as the pot does not swell quite so much. thoughts?

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If your hand is better on average than the limpers range ; more importantly , if you would have called a button's raise anyway , then there is nothing wrong with raising the pot oop . This is especially true against a player who telegraphs the strength of his hand by his limps .

In theory , we should raise in position with hands slightly worse than average or better since we have a positional advantage . Likewise , we should raise with hands oop with hands that are better than average to compensate for the positional disadvantage .

So to answer your question , if an opponent limps with weak hands but raises with strong hands , then you should raise the limper more often than 3 bet the raiser .