PreFlop bets

I have a real problem with preflop bets. Every time I bet preflop(always have at least A with high kicker) I get beat some how. I can't seem to get a handle on preflop betting. Any pointers?

Buy-in and type of game?

You should be varying your range on preflop bets so no one player will be able to read you like a book. Sometimes even checking with A(high kicker) is good too. totally depends what you want to do with the hand after the flop and the players at the table.

Vary up your play style a little bit. Good players will figure u out and that's not what u want. Open up your range a bit

I play cash games a little, but, mostly play sng tables. Thanks for the advice. I will implement right away.

your going to need to give us much more information than this, what site, what level, what happens after you raise, try the section for posting hand history and posts some of those hands to see what people think, it might be the best idea

Open raise a little looser and vary up you Play.

I can only guess based on the little information given, but my guess would be tha that you're getting punished by people calling you with speculative type hands. I suspect that they have you pegged as being so nitty that they know whether you've hit the flop before you do. They can call your bets with medium cards. When they don't see an Ace, King or Queen on the flop they can be pretty certain that you missed. When a big card hits the board they've probably got the fold button clicked before you've decided how much to bet. You're going to have to open up your range a bit. Obviously, I'm not going to define my range here, but it's tight enough that people learn not to call me light, but not so nitty that I don't get any action or become easily predictable.

I'm a believer in making standard sized raises so as not to give away the strength of my hand. I generally raise 3x + 1x for each limper in front of me with my whole range. My raises are generally the same size whether I'm holding Q-J or Q-Q, K-Q or A-A. If I wouldn't raise with it, then I usually wouldn't play it. At the same time, I don't find it necesssary to play every hand within my range. That is to say, the hands that I might raise with are not always the same hands that I would call a raise with, since I find that most players play a wider range than me, but have a tighter raising range than I do. Nor am I going to raise with hands at the bottom of my range from early position and maybe not from late position if there are too many players in the pot, and the raise size necessary to discourage them would be more than I would want to invest in those cards.

My standard advice:

1) If you are the first one to volunteer chips in the pot, raise 2.5 to 3.5 times the BB. Don't limp.

2) Do not vary your preflop raise based on the strength of your hand - pocket Aces get the same raise as pocket 6s. You may vary the preflop raise based on your position, but not the cards.

Those two points have served me well.

Blue_Fossil said:

My standard advice:

1) If you are the first one to volunteer chips in the pot, raise 2.5 to 3.5 times the BB. Don't limp.

2) Do not vary your preflop raise based on the strength of your hand - pocket Aces get the same raise as pocket 6s. You may vary the preflop raise based on your position, but not the cards.

Those two points have served me well.

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I agree dont vary your pre flop raise..it makes it easier to put you on a range.

Karkus77 said:

your going to need to give us much more information than this, what site, what level, what happens after you raise, try the section for posting hand history and posts some of those hands to see what people think, it might be the best idea

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^this

Also focus on your table position. Ahigh kicker has much more value from late pos. than it does ep/mp. But it's really hard to give any pointers to such a vague question. Even if you don't have the exact hands try posting some similar scenarios to see if there is any advice on what you could have done differently.

Also maybe other players have good read on you, and they raise on flop.
They know you only hit flop 20% of times.

Preflop Considerations:

If you have a strong hand and want to see a flop remember your odds of winning are diminished when many join the pot, so if you have hand like JJ, then bet high enough preflop to make most people fold.

If you have a suited connector like 5-6 spades, then you are hoping to get a strong hand that would have more equity against many players so you might wish to limp in.

You must be conscious of your position at the table especially with hands like AK. If you call from an early position and do not hit a high pair on flop you re either forced to bluff which is often a bad habit in tournaments (IMO), as many fold, but the people with hands that start calling you can dent your stack.

So if you do not hit flop with AK from early position you are best to fold.

If I play A-Rag. I like to do it from late or button and bet high enough to make most competition fold 3xBB type thing. Then you can at least make the standard button/position bets if you re checked to and steal the pot.

double post - guessing delete doesn't work.

I was taught to raise 2xBB in EP, 2.5xBB in Middle Position, and 3xBB in Late position to raise value by position

Not sure why you would want to raise more in late position. To me that would indicate weakness.

it deppend on how often do you raise preflop.. try raisig 3xbb in one sitiation and then change it.. don't let others see your cards trough ya raise.. tru bluffing a bit..
sometimes call preflop vith good hand isn't that bad either..
gl..

Well it depends on many factors. For an example Preflop playing is just one part of your whole game. "Balancing" is the definition here, people talk about playing the hand "open face", which is only good when we are try to be bluffing. I attempt to be playing 16/14 for full ring tables. But then for the 6 players table I try to be playing it 21/18. Do you use a poker HUD like poker tracker? This will help you to see how often you are opn rasing it, and you can make corrections and also learn more about what mistakes you might be making.

Mtt and sng I raise 2.5x every blind level. I do this for my entire range. Your opponent can not put you on a hand then. Does he have 44 or AA? I increase my raise for each limper in front of me. If blinds are 25/50 and I am utg I open for 139, if I am on the button and no one has entered the pot I would open 129. If there were 2 limpers and I am on the button I would make it 149. Pick a raise and keep it for your whole range.

steveiam said:

Not sure why you would want to raise more in late position. To me that would indicate weakness.

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I would guess it is because you will more likely be playing the hand in position if you get called.

Sng are more about push fold at the later stages. Pre flop raise but don't over value Ax hands until chip stacks tell you to. Post flop just bet for value.