The Standard Raise

I always use to bet 3 times the big blind but that is just not enough to make people fold I believe the standard bet should be around 4 or 5 times the big blind. Partially the reason to raise is to force people to fold but I think the standard raise should be bigger than 3 times the big blind what do you think about that?

It depends what you play.. if you play a tournament with 1500 chips each at the beginning and blinds are 15/30 then 3x bb is probably not going to get as much people to fold as if the avg chip stack is like 5k and the blinds are 200/400... but generalyl speaking a standard raise is around 2.5-3.5 BB .. but it all depnds like i said

Yea exactly I usually do it in freerolls with 1500 in chips and not even all in will get people to fold.

The whole idea to raising isn't to get people to fold, it's to win their money! That's why I will raise pre-flop NOT to get them to fold but the opposite---to get them to stay in and get their money!! I'l raise pre-flop with a quality hand 2-3Xs the big blind 1) to get a sense of who's got what (lets say you just get a call-good or semi good hand--re-raise same amount, they think they got the winner, or at least enough to beat you--re-raise 4-5Xs big blind, theydefinetly have decent starters---then the all-in, for sure they think they're the best and are going for it ALL!) All this is providing they aren't bluffing OR they're just plain DONKEYS!! Both of the last scenarios are beyond my control--that's when the skill comes in and you know your hand and think you know theirs--heres where knowing the odds-knowing what pot-odds are about-is it worth calling or re-reraising then comes the flop-and everything you know about poker comes into play--whats my odds of drawing out--what's his odds--AND gut feelings not to mention LUCK comes into play!!

sometimes you want to make the standard raise to make someone fold at times as well not just to try to trap people.

If you are in the Small blind and everyone else to you folded what is a good bet to try and steal the big blind? asuming the BB has about the same amount of chips as you do.

its according to how good a hand you got
if you think you gonna win dont you want them to stay and pay
if you think your beat and can run them out then why not go all in
but if you think your beat and cant run them out why raise at all
most the time 3x the pot not the blinds will turn them away even if they do got something

ah goody goody fun time
if you are trying to get more people and money in the pot before the flop by all means raise 3x. you are just building the pot odds for the others. if you want people to get out of the pot so you can take the blinds then why play. it sucks i know but the fact is that we all are going to lose more offten than we win. but the trick is to win big and lose little. there are more ways to play any random hand than there are pros to write books about them.

If your going to play like that u might just play your hand face up.
Any non terrible player will pick up on what your doing and eat you alive if your going to tell them your hand .

Couldn't agree more.

You're probably better off sizing your bets based on what time it is then on the strength of your hand!

Your pre-flop raises are either semi-bluffs or value bets (Andy Bloch). Problem is, if you don't have AA then you don't know which. Maybe both...

In a loose game semi-bluffs are going to lose some of their value because you're getting less fold equity. If you're in a looser game and 3xBB is consistently getting 3+ callers then bump it up (or tighten up).

I usually never raise more than 3x the big blind unless the person re raised me. I find out my own style of playing is prett effective and i've been really successful in tournament and cash games.

Well it really depends who you are playing with. If your opponents are loose then your bet should be bigger since they are more likely to call. You definitly don't want too many people in the pot catching whatever comes. Now if your playing against tight tight players, a big raise like that will probably be too much. I say this because three times is first of all big enough to make them fold, and also because if they do call you or reraise you, you just put more money at risk against somebody with probably the better hand preflop. In the end its up to who your playing and what you get from your reads. Good luck at the tables .

That also depends on the type of player that is in your big blind. If they defend their blind then you can expect a call/raise. And then you'd have to outplay them post-flop out of position.

3x is pretty standard; you are increasing this if you have limpers in ahead of you though, right? If you have two limpers ahead it should be 3x + 2 = 5x, otherwise it's just a pot sweeting raise which is fine if you have AA.

If the stacks get small relative to the blind size, which happens in turbos, going down to 2.5 or even 2 can be fine.

Also, Phil Gordon made a good point in an article I read somewhere on the internet, about sizing your raises according the stack sizes behind you. If you. For example, you have a small stack with 4BBs in the blind but a big stack with 15 BBs in the small blind. With a hand like KJ you don't necessarily want to tackle the big stack but you'd be happy to get the small stack all in, so make a raise like 2.5 that targets the small stack, but lets you fold if the big stack reraises.