SB RFI sizing?

[leeroy818]

Hi everyone.


I'm studying my preflop ranges at the moment, and I want to look into some theory around bet sizing to go along with it (this is for online tournament poker, rather than cash/live) - in particular, opening size from the SB.
I am currently using the following strategy:
When effective stacks are 50bb+, I'm opening 3x from EP, 2.5x from MP, 2.2x from the BU and 2.5x from the SB.
When effective stacks are around 30-40bb, I'm opening 2.5x from EP and MP, and 2.1x from BU. I'm still tending to use 2.5x from SB.
When effective stacks are 15-25bb, I'm opening 2.3x from EP, 2.1/2.2x from MP, 2x from BU, and 2.2x from the SB.
I feel comfortable with the EP, MP and LP, but I'm unsure as to whether my SB sizing needs some thought.
What sizing people are generally using when RFI from the SB, and why do you choose the size? I appreciate that adjustments will be made based on who the BB is, but I'd still like to make sure my 'default' sizing is accurate enough so that I can adjust appropriately based BB's tendencies. Thanks for any input!

 

[Jon Poker]

RFI sizing should be based upon effective stack sizing and should not change via table positioning - that said, I think its a personal note and if you choose to do such, as long as you keep your sizings consistent - its not going to be a large problem. The issue with sizing up in general (unless you are super deep, 100bb+) is that you are going to be facing a much more condensed range from your villans when they call you, they will not be getting a good price with some marginal holdings and therefor will be folding much more of those.

Moving onto SB RFI, when it folds to us in the SB we are naturally out of position vs the BB and so OOP we need to size up. Effective stack sizes around 20-35bb I always go 2.7x and sizes above 35bb I always go 3.3x - its a minimal difference but 3.2x here would be just fine as well. We go larger to induce more folds and because we are going to play the hand oop for the duration of such - so we want to do all we can to maximize fold equity in this spot and play accordingly post flop when we get called.

Ranges from the SB are extremely wide -- we should be limping some of the very top of our range and some of the suited Ax and Kx with the intent to limp-raise these combos. We also limp the middling portions of our range with the intent to call a raise like suited connectors 6x and above, offsuit hands like JT+ and this limp-raise and limp-call strategy balances our limping range out - we do have some limp folds as well. The rest is pretty simple with us raising our worst hands and some of our better hands that we didn't limp.

Another factor here is from the SB when our villan is 20bb effective or less - we have ALOT of open jams. For instance every single offsuit Ax from the SB vs BB on 20bb effective is just an open jam.

Hope this insight helps!

 

[fundiver199]

I always use 3BB or even larger sizing from SB. The reason is, that with smaller sizing BB basically gets priced in to call with any two cards, because he have position. I also do a lot of open limping from SB. I dont think, a small raise like 2,2BB really does anything other than bloat the pot, when we are out of position and therefore at a disadvantage postflop. But maybe you can get a way with it against someone, who is very passive and dont defend enough. Blind vs. blind always involve a lot of dynamics between the players, so its fine to experiment and try some different strategies.

 

[leeroy818]

RFI sizing should be based upon effective stack sizing and should not change via table positioning

Thanks for the insights, was all very useful! I actually prefer the idea of keeping the RFI size standard for effective stack sizes, rather than also adjusting for position, so I will start to do this. Should keep things a bit simpler!

I always use 3BB or even larger sizing from SB. The reason is, that with smaller sizing BB basically gets priced in to call with any two cards, because he have position. I also do a lot of open limping from SB. I dont think, a small raise like 2,2BB really does anything other than bloat the pot, when we are out of position and therefore at a disadvantage postflop. But maybe you can get a way with it against someone, who is very passive and dont defend enough. Blind vs. blind always involve a lot of dynamics between the players, so its fine to experiment and try some different strategies.

Thanks fundriver. I have been looking at my range construction for SB, and it seems there should indeed be a high frequency of limping, which I wasn't doing before. My RFI from the SB was something like 45%, so clearly a flaw in my strategy. I have since started implementing the limp-call, limp-raise strategy with a bigger part of my range which I would previously have just opened (for a size that appears was too small, as well. Combining opening too many hands for a size that is too small was likely a huge leak!).

 

[Jon Poker]

Thanks for the insights, was all very useful! I actually prefer the idea of keeping the RFI size standard for effective stack sizes, rather than also adjusting for position, so I will start to do this. Should keep things a bit simpler!




Thanks fundriver. I have been looking at my range construction for SB, and it seems there should indeed be a high frequency of limping, which I wasn't doing before. My RFI from the SB was something like 45%, so clearly a flaw in my strategy. I have since started implementing the limp-call, limp-raise strategy with a bigger part of my range which I would previously have just opened (for a size that appears was too small, as well. Combining opening too many hands for a size that is too small was likely a huge leak!).

Glad it helped! To touch on another note - I don't think a 45% rfi from the SB is technically a leak - might not be GTO approved but exploitatively I think it's a fine strategy, if we are playing roughly 88% of hands from the SB then raising 45% isn't necessarily too far off the mark. I tend to limp the hands I am supposed to when I know players are aggressive or capable, or I have no reads on them at all - if they are too passive, I raise them way more than I normally would simply because they will overfold and never 3bet me as a bluff. So I think there is tons of merit to knowing the GTO line, but also knowing when to get away from it and exploit more.