game 150bb deepstack.level 3.my standard open is min raise.im informed by ptrou that my min raise is appalling and his p5 " coach" tells him its correct to open 3x to thin the field.I would counter that in a game of 150bb players are not folding to 3x raise anyway . to inflate pots preflop can lead to having to make bigger decisions in a game where you have plenty of time to let your winning post flop play come into play , rather than getting involved in big pots early on .your thoughts please.

You need to hire a coach. You found the right place for that right here.

Thinning the field is a nonsensical concept and minraising or 3xing makes little difference. Typically I will open whatever other people are opening, for the most part, in order not to stand out.

fyp

3x is a standard, you should probably open lower in late position unless there are big droolers in the blinds in which case u can open even bigger

It's more to do with the fact that 150bbs deep, opening 3x instead of 2x can more or less exponentially increases the size of the pot by river. you shouldn't be thinking in terms of i can make a bigger mistake post flop when i 3x it rather than 2x it, If you have any decent edge over the field in general then 3xing should be pretty standard.

If i thought i was that much better post flop and people would still call me 4xing then it could even be worth increasing your opening size.

The deeper you are the more you want to cut down their implied equity by raising to a larger size. Also you want to get more value from your big hands. So yeah 100bb+ you want to open 3x

I thank you for your thoughts and replies ppl.much appreciated.

I would send you to a good COTW on SPR, but I dont have the link here.
If not look up Split Suit, I think he did a video on it.
gl

Difficult to read hands and assign ranges when you let people in for cheap. Unless you are set-mining and playing very tight it is not an optimal strategy. You want to build pots with your big hands. If you have a premium hand like AK, you typically want to raise big and hope to get callers so you have a bigger pot to play for post flop with a good hand. Speculative hands such as suited connectors or low pp you can raise smaller, if you wish to raise, to thin the field slightly. If you play online, it won't take long for observant opponents to pick up on this. So if you feel like you are being exploited, you can raise small with big hands sometimes and bigger with speculative hands to mix it up. Plus, if people will call your raise for 5x, 6x, etc. raise as big as you can to still get action with your big hands.

or you could just make it 3x with everything and dont care anymore.. or level yourself that someone is reading your betsizing. Preflop no big deal anyways, postflop is where it matters. 1bb more or less who cares

The space followed by a period thing gets tilting after a few sentences.

in deepstacked games hand values are normalised (although 150bb isnt that much big stacked). for this reason i believe it doesn't matter that much if you'll open 2bb or 3bb or 4bb with say, AA. not to mention that that extra 1 or 2bb arent going to skyrocket the pot to 300bb without some serious raising. if the players have strong enough hands they will bet big anyway, regardless of the size of the initial pot

and thinning the field is a nonsensical concept in deepstacked poker. if you have A4 suited your dream scenario is to have everyone in the pot. with AA or KK, same thing. it's so uncommon to go far with top pair or orverpair that you will be playing these for the most time like small pairs in 100bb games if you want to go all the way with them. so again no point in thinning the field unless if you're happy to win 10bb and lose the chance to get 200

Thinning the field and betting your good hands bigger is necessary for long term positive expectation. If you people will call your small raise with AA lets say, then you should raise as big enough while still getting action. It is also very hard to assign ranges to people that are let in cheap. During low stakes live play, it can still be profitable to sweeten the pot with these hands sometimes. But typically you need to raise big with big hands and small with small hands while mixing it up for balance.

well maybe it's the way i see it, but i think in deep stacked poker (i think this was the case in the opening post, no?) you have to improve to go far, no matter what hand you have (unless if you're playing with clueless players). as i said hand values normalise and therefore there isn't that much difference between playing AA and 89 suited. so since you have to improve, you might as well have a lot of people in when you do. it increases your chances of getting paid

however as i said, this is my view, im sure there are other strategies, playing small pots and stuff

"[I]n order not to stand out" is a nonsensical concept. "Thinning the field" can actually make some sense if it's another way of saying "not letting people make +ev calls in position against me."

In response to OP though, 150bb deep I would be making it at least 3x because that makes the pot bigger, and with 150bbs you have a plenty big enough stack with which to use your postflop skills to win that extra money.

Just stumbled across this, I think what I was trying to explain at the time was, im making it 3x as there are 30min levels there are a lot of idiots in the field and we want to build the pot so when we have it we can bet bigger on the river.

You kept going on that Neil Channing had said 2x everything but I just think you need to be open to other options and decide IF they are correct for the type of game YOU want to play.

I am not 3x it to thin the field, I want to build the pot and tbh im going to be in position when I am opening a ton and wont leave bigger decision to make.

bigger decisions = bigger decisions preflop = letting your 'winning post flop play' come into play. way to contradict yourself.

that said, how you think you have 'plenty of time' to let any sort of postflop play come into play into an MTT is beyond me. the more you wait, the more the blinds go up and thus the fewer BBs you end up having. not sure what kind of hugely exploitative post flop play anyone can have when they're 30-50 bb deep

I disagree that you cant have an edge post flop with 50bbs, and I also think when there are 30min levels with 5k starting stack you do have plenty of time.