preflop bet sizing - more or less?

i'll just mention beforehand that although the authors were talking about different situations (phil raising when you're first in and the poker listings article about three betting), i think this still applies.

so i was reading phil gordon's little green book, and it was talking about raising preflop. he said you should raise 2.5x-3xBB in early position, and the later position you have, the more you raise because you have a positional advantage. when i read that, i remembered an article I had read last year that stated the opposite. this article claimed that to compensate for your positional disadvantage, you need to raise 4xBB in early position, and less in late position. ignoring the types of players a table could have, which one of these philosophies is correct?

There are arguments for both sides. I open 3.5x or 4 in EP and 3 or 2.5 in LP.

Optimal raise size depends on a lot more than just your position. Stack sizes, tendencies of the players in the pot, players yet to act, etc.

There's really not all that much of a difference between 3x and 4x, or 2.5x and 3x etc. Don't stress it too much. Experiment a little bit with each, try minraising the button against abc players, see what works for yourself and stay fluid.

I always tend to keep my bets at a 3x+1bb for every limper in all posistions. The reason for this is that it makes me harder to read and put on a hand, which helps a lot when I'm trying to make a steal

In tournaments I'm apt to bet more in early position, because then I actually have a hand and the people who don't understand the gap concept will call with less.
Besides, I'm playing a wider range in late position, so I'm fine with smaller pots with lesser hands.

In rings, I pretty much bet the same in any position unless I see that the blind(s) will fold to small steals.

Inscore77 said:

I always tend to keep my bets at a 3x+1bb for every limper in all posistions. The reason for this is that it makes me harder to read and put on a hand, which helps a lot when I'm trying to make a steal

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so you don't take into account your position when you bet/raise is what you're saying (because it makes it harder to put you on a hand). are you saying it is insignificant to raise less or more depending on position? because doing that would disguise your hands equally well because you would be raising according to position and not your cards.

SavagePenguin said:

Besides, I'm playing a wider range in late position, so I'm fine with smaller pots with lesser hands.

Click to expand...

but that is choosing your raise ammount according to your cards. this introduces predictability, and isn't what this topic is about anyways.

Usually 4xBB +1 per limper from EP
Usually 3xBB +1 per limper from LP

mmm...votes are 4/4. seems like usually most people can agree on one side of an argument, but not this one...i hope this discussion is not just left at this, unresolved.

I've started to believe in Daniel's small ball approach, so I don't go into a game with a plan to bet different amounts from different positions. The skill of my opponents does change my strategy though the size of my bets are inversely related to the skill of my opponents.