Varying your PF raises.

Any advice on doing this(playing micro stakes)? I never change my PF raise, its always 3xbb but I find some situations where I think betting 3xbb would not be effective such as:
1. Getting premium hands 2 to 3 straight times consecutively
2. Big pocket pairs
3. Early position JJ-77

Should I just be creative at these kinds of situations.

EDIT: also, why is my pokerstars account not being tracked by pokertableratings.com? its my only way of checking my pokerstats, hands etc.

If you vary you raise you have to watch that the other players do not get a read on that!
Otherwise you could very the raise based on the position you play....
The closer you get to the button the higher your raise.
But in my opinion you should always raise the same amount so no one can be sure which hand you are playing....

PTR doesn't track PokerStars games below 100nl, I don't know why since Full Tilt games are tracked below 100nl.

How much you open for should depend on a few factors, and there is room for getting creative, but there's not much need to get super creative at microstakes. That said, here are some things to think about:

1. Don't vary pf raises based on your hand strength. Too much of a tipoff.

2. A tighter player is better off opening larger than a looser player. The tighter range is more likely to be ahead than the looser range. A tighter player should probably be using 4x as a standard rather than 3x. In general, 3x at micro I think is a mistake as a default, it's too small, even for a loose player I'd use 3.5x.

3. Position is commonly used to vary raise sizing. One line of thought is to decrease the raise size in positions where opener is likely to be stealing and to increase the raise size i positions where opener is likely to be opening for value. As an example, you might open 4x from ep and mp and 3x from lp and sb. Another line of thought is to reverse the logic and open smaller from ep and larger from later position, since you are trying to discourage the blinds from calling your opens from lp. (I subscribe to the former view fwiw).

4. If you're opening for value (i.e., you're opening say JJ+,AQ+), and you're certain other players at the table will call w worse even if you increase the betsize, by all means increase the betsize. So let's say I've opened three hands consecutively, got callers on all three hands, and took all three pots on the flop w a cbet. Now I get dealt AA - by all means increase your betsize if you think everyone's "he ain't got sh*t" detector is ringing and you'll get callers w a larger betsize.

5. If you're opening in front of a shortstacked player, you may want to decrease your opening betsize, esp if you're in a stealing position. This decreases your exposure if he shoves and you have to fold. Note that it's important to not do this based on the strength of your hand - you want him to make his decision without knowing whether you have 94o or KK.

Having said all that, I don't bother to vary pf raise sizes at limits lower than 25nl (and usually don't bother at 25nl either). Nobody's paying enough attention to make it worthwhile.

PTR doesn't track all hands either. If you compare your HEM or PT3 data with PTR, there will be a discrepancy.

First of all, what slycbnew said...

Totally byting from Chris Ferguson, you WANT to vary the size of your pre-flop raise based on your position. This gives your opponents an opportunity to make a mistake. Namely, assuming that your are varying your raises according to hand strength.

I prefer smaller/EP and larger/LP. If I'm raising UTG with weaker hands and things get crazy behind me then I can ditch without having lost much. Or if I've been raising 3.5xBB from LP and raise 2.5xBB (or even 2xBB) UTG w/KK, it looks weak. It might entice a re-raise.

slycbnew said:

3. Position is commonly used to vary raise sizing. One line of thought is to decrease the raise size in positions where opener is likely to be stealing and to increase the raise size i positions where opener is likely to be opening for value. As an example, you might open 4x from ep and mp and 3x from lp and sb. Another line of thought is to reverse the logic and open smaller from ep and larger from later position, since you are trying to discourage the blinds from calling your opens from lp. (I subscribe to the former view fwiw).

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I find this the best way in the micro's. For a few reasons.\

1. you actually are raising more with hands likely to be ahead.

2. Your stronger hands are more likely to get called. In the micros it's less likely a riase will take it down from EP no matter how big for the most part.

3. In later position you will for the most part have weaker hands. And it will be easy to get away from most of your range when 3bet. Also you putting less money in with weaker hands but position might make up for the weaker hands.

I was doing a 4x EP 3-3.5x MP and a 2-2.5 LP. It seemed to help me.

Chris Ferguson recommends 2BB in ep, 2.5 in mp, and 3 in lp. If there are antes involved, he adds half a BB to his normal bet.

Why this works:
1. He is not giving away any information based on his cards. He is betting his position which everyone at the table can see anyway.
2. If someone comes over the top of him when he is in ep, he can get out if he has AQ or he thinks his AK is dominated. Because he only plays big hand in ep, a pro should have a monster to reraise him.
3. 2BB is a small enough bet to trick the big blind into calling (only costs 1bb) with things like Ax when he will be dominated many times and out of position.
4. In late position, blinds think you could be stealing. It costs them more to defend their blinds and some of the time you will have a big hand which could make them pay for defending their blinds.

This is an advanced strategy and should probably only be played at medium and higher stakes. In micro/low stakes you will probably be called by four or more players if you only bet 2BB from ep, which is hard to play because they could have anything. Chris is a tournament player only so it might not be recommended for cash games at all. Just something to think about.

Chris's bet sizing didn't work for me in the micro's.
1. Betting by postion -- I agree with that. But betting more from EP when your hand range is stronger as a whole is better IMO.
2. If someone does come over the top of me in EP of the micro's i'm usually crushing their range and willing to get it in. But still can get away from the bottom of my range.
3. If the BB calls 2BB OOP they often call 4BB almost as much. Also a 2BB raise is just inviting a 5-6 way pot where 4 players have position on you. And your pretty much asking people to set mine you.
4. LP it cheaper to steal. In my experiance in the micros a raise is a raise it often does matter the size. If they call a small raise they call a big one. And for the most part they don't know how to defend the blinds. So keep the pot small with small hand and build it when you hit the flop. IMO keeping the implied odds high and bets small in position is the best way to go.

It depends. Are you referring to tournament play here... or cash tables. If tournament play I will comment with my 2cents after you've responded on here.

Poker Orifice said:

It depends. Are you referring to tournament play here... or cash tables. If tournament play I will comment with my 2cents after you've responded on here.

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Good point - I assumed cash because of the PTR question and the phrase "micro-stakes" in OP and replied as such, I wouldn't apply my comments to tourney play directly...

cardplayer52 said:

I find this the best way in the micro's. For a few reasons.\

1. you actually are raising more with hands likely to be ahead.

2. Your stronger hands are more likely to get called. In the micros it's less likely a riase will take it down from EP no matter how big for the most part.

3. In later position you will for the most part have weaker hands. And it will be easy to get away from most of your range when 3bet. Also you putting less money in with weaker hands but position might make up for the weaker hands.

I was doing a 4x EP 3-3.5x MP and a 2-2.5 LP. It seemed to help me.

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Gotta remember micro stakes is a different animal. All ins will get called a lot more often, as will big raises...So I agree...

dd_decker said:

Gotta remember micro stakes is a different animal. All ins will get called a lot more often, as will big raises...So I agree...

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I'm also assuming the OP meant a FR cash game.

I actually tried the 2x in early position and I kept getting multiple callers. I like 3x myself and just raising strong hands from early position. Min raise with AA once from early position and when you have 4 callers you'll be wishing you had raised more.

I play micro-stakes cash gamesat poker-stars.
I was actually surpised that there was less all-in, raise kind of players compared to full tilt that I don't expect getting reraised PF anymore I dont have to go all-in everytime that I have a hand. A majority would just call and bet if they hit and when they notice that I bet more often than others then theyll start reraising me.
Varying my PF raises would probably chnge my opponents mind when dealing with me. It was my thought also that it wouldnt be much of a change since there's still a handful that would call with any 2 cards but I figured I should start thinking about these things that I can improve in. The advices are great and it would def. keep this in mind.

something i was curious about regarding preflop raises is say you're in late pos and you're holding a premium hand and half the table limps in. in that situation you generally want to raise 3xbb+1bb for every limper?

At micro levels, playing a standard 3x BB raise is okay, however, at these stakes i would assume your getting too many callers betting only 3x BB. I would be betting at least 4x BB at micro levels. But play tight as people at these levels will generally not pick up on the fact that your a tight or aggressive player. Just stick to playing tight and you will have them crushed every showdown. Hope this helped!