changing pre-flop raises?

so in another thread I started, I have been getting flack about my choise in pre-flop raise. Since I have no one to talk to about poker, when my session/tourny ends, I self evaluate on the drive home, come on here and pose the question I have to you guys to see other's line of thinking. The other thread had nothing to do with pre-flop raising, but in reading the responses to it the focus of the my play has been on the pre-flop raise.
My cash game, and tourny game are very different. In a cash game, I will adjust my raise based on a few different factors, posstion, who is in the pot, and how many people are in the pot, never basid on the strength of my hand. My tourny game, I usualy, if I am first in the pot, standard raise to 2.5 the big blind, i try not to change that. I do not want to give away the strength of my hand, weather I am stealing or not, and most of the time I feel I can out play the person I am in the pot with post flop.

So do you change your pre-flop raises? If so why?

I always 3x BB with a hand I am playing if I am opening the pot. I don;t usually deviate form this. All the posts I have read and books I have read along the way suggest the same thing. However Poker is about situations so if I think it will take 4x BB to move someone off the blind I may go ahead and do that. But I can;t give a recent example of actually doing that.

I'll only change my preflop raise size if there is a significant amount of limpers. If theres 3 or 4 limpers in front of you and you make it 3x there all getting crazy implied odds to call, so theres really no reason to raise at all if your only going to make it the standard 3x. I usually make it 4-5x in that type of situation. Where if I get a few callers, theres 25bb or so in the pot, so theres only a few big bets left before were all in. Other than that I stick to the standard 3x.

matt20, thats why you should make your standard 3x + 1x per limper, maybe.

2.5BB raise is just too small IMO as it just sweetens the pot for those who think that they are getting priced in with their small pairs, painted/suited connectors and also gives the SB/BB the odds to call just about ATC.
If you think about it, the blinds already have around 1/3 in the of what you have put in when you make the 2.5BB raise

shinedown.45 said:

2.5BB raise is just too small IMO as it just sweetens the pot for those who think that they are getting priced in with their small pairs, painted/suited connectors and also gives the SB/BB the odds to call just about ATC.
If you think about it, the blinds already have around 1/3 in the of what you have put in when you make the 2.5BB raise

Click to expand...

I am not disputing the fact that it is a small raise. I am raising with EV+ hands. That being said, the bilds are "priced in" they can call with ATC. The goal here is to make the most money, and induce bad calls. From what I have heard the amount of the pre-flop raise is up to the raiser. I am not looking for the amount I should raise pre-flop. 2.5bb works for me. 3bb 4bb 5bb, those might be the numbers that work for you. DO YOU CHANGE YOUR RAISE? IF SO WHY?

I usually stick to the standard 3x the big blind but occasionally I'll go bigger, depending on if there's already several limpers and loose callers at the table.

I really only play cash and I vary my PFR size based on my position and who my likely opponent will be. For example I normally raise small on the BTN (2x-2.5x) but if a huge station is in the BB, I might make it 5x because he'll call too much and play poorly postflop.

smellikerurx said:

DO YOU CHANGE YOUR RAISE? IF SO WHY?

Click to expand...

I do change my raises depending on who's in the hand, my position, my image and what time it is on my watch, the latter has to do with premium hands as if I have raised with AA/KK/QQ earlier, I will change that raise at a certain minute according to my watch.
My position and how many players that have entered the pot depend on how much I raise, wether it be lower or higher.

UTG/EP1/EP2 my raises will never be lowered though.
If this is what you meant then this is what I am giving, if you need me to elaborate more just let me know.

suit2please said:

matt20, thats why you should make your standard 3x + 1x per limper, maybe.

Click to expand...

Yeah with 4 limpers in the pot that would mean i need to 7x. Really not looking to make an 7x opens preflop even with that many limpers. Most I really raise pre is 5x. In a similar situation that were talking about.

I raise 3x+1bb for each extra limper pre ante and 2.5+1 after antes

I don't adjust the size of my PF raise. It gives away too much information over time. That, and sometimes it will give odds to call when I don't want a caller, or odds to fold when I want action. I don't want to run the risk of becoming pot committed with a c bet or value bet post flop when I hit an average strength hand post flop, and I don't want a standard 1/2-3/4 pot size bet to scare away action post flop when I'm holding the best of it.

Make sense.

Think about why you're raising. Are you raising because you want everybody to call? (Hand like SC that if it hits will be a monster, likely to be best, etc.?) Or are you raising because you want to isolate the pot. Late position with TT? While your raises should not reveal information about your hand, they should accomplish something. Either keep your opponents guessing with random raises, or follow a routine - 3 BBs, then 4 BBs, then 3.5 BBs, then 4.5 BBs, then 3 BBs, etc.

Or raise on the value of your position. Bad players will assume you are raising on the value of your cards. Ussually I'll be anywhere between 2.5-6 BBs base on the action in the hand and the tendencies of my opponents.

i change raise sizing in tournaments as the blinds get bigger same wtih STT, and i may also change raise sizings due to the quality of opponants in the blinds.. better players ill raise more, worse ill raise less..

I consistently make different size bets but they are all for specific situations. I play mostly 18 person SNG's and some MTT's. I tend to apply more of a cash strategy of 4x + a BB for every limper when raising. If I'm under 10BB I go all-in instead of raising. But later in the tournaments when the chips a bigger part of peoples stacks you can get away with a lot less risk using min raises and 3x BB raises depending what position you are raising from. It works for me maybe because I usually have a more tight than loose rep by the end game.

raising

i stick to the pro strategies of raising 2 times the big blind in early position, 2.5 times in middle position, and three times the big blind i late position, this takes away the chance of them reading your hand.
adsthepro

i change my raises based on everything mentioned here, but i think if you change your raise sizing it can definitely give away the strength of your hand. for this reason, i also change mix it up between 3x and 5x just for the hell of it, so as not to become predictable.

I usually raise size of the pot, which is a little over 3xBB w/ no limpers. If there's one limper it becomes like 4.5xBB.

In MTTs and cash games I have a tendency to stick to a rigid PFR structure, 3xbb can change depending on who is in pot position and action up to me etc. similar to what has been said.

In a 9 man sit n go on FT, generally - especially as there are no antes, I tend to stick to this structure:

First level - 3.5xbb
Up to 30/60 - 3xbb
Up to 100/200 - 2.5xbb
120/240+ - minraise/shove

In a SnG there is no need to risk so much preflop, I make the same raises with the goods as I do without them, if you're getting it on on the flop in a SnG, generally you're getting it on. So I feel it doesn't affect so much my ability to stack someone when I'm good, but I can get away from spots and not lose as many chips (which can be key and rise exponentially regards doubling up etc.), whilst still - I believe and in my experience; I am raising the pot enough to put significant pressure on my opponents. I may deviate depending on my opponents and effective stacks, but the above certainly generalises my approach.

adsthepro123 said:

i stick to the pro strategies of raising 2 times the big blind in early position, 2.5 times in middle position, and three times the big blind i late position, this takes away the chance of them reading your hand.
adsthepro

Click to expand...

I know this comes for Chris Ferguson's FTP Academy Challenge but it's really quite horrible advice. Quite possibly the worst on that site (that's saying a lot).

Using this strategy:

1. We play our strongest hand range in small pots OOP
2. We play our weakest hand range in large pots which lessens out positional advantage
3. We encourage multiway pots with our hands that have lots of reverse implied odds
4. We discourage the blinds from playing hands when we have position

Like it or not your hand range is generally known based on your position, regardless of raise size. Typical ranges from EP are somewhere around 10% while many players on the BTN open somewhere near 80% in unopened pots.

If you're going to vary your open sizes based on position I'd advocate the exact opposite of the strategy you're following. Open big when your range is strong and you'll be OOP. Open small when your range is wide and you might encourage the blinds to play OOP.

Note that I'm not saying to raise more with your big hands, I'm saying raise more with your strongest range. So AA UTG would be maybe 4x and AA on the BTN might be a min raise. Same with 78s (if you open it UTG that is).

I always do 3BB raise and sometimes i do 2,5 or 4-5BB when blinds is not so big)))