Just want to make it as simple as possible. In general, what is considered normal for preflop bet sizing throughout tournaments depending on the amount of BBs for majority of players. When i play, many times i would change such as sometimes i do 3x when early but sometimes do 2.5x. Obviously its not bad to change it around but little things like this makes things a bit frustrating for me.


My thoughts are something like this. Tell me if you agree/disagree or what you would change. Also how would antes factor into this since early on theres no antes. Thus when antes, preflop raise sizing would definitely be smaller.


If you have 150BB or more, 3x

If you have 100bb-149bb, 2.5x

If you have 50bb-99bb, 2.2x

If you have between 16bb-49bb, 2x or 2.1x

If you have 15bb or less, all in or fold.



Another thing is I hear people never 3x preflop anymore like in the old days where 3x is standard. If thats the case, are ppl 2.5x when 10k stacks and 25/50 blinds with 200bb.... I would find this to not be good. I can't imagine there not being a 3x preflop raise at 25/50 if everyone has like 300bb.


Also, i hear someone mention that people who 2x or 2.1x when stacks are 100bb are making a huge mistake. That is correct right? At what point is it when 2x or 2.1x becomes okay such as don't do that when BB stacks are like 75BB? I know 2x when 50bb is pretty fine but is 2.5x too much? I just know back then 3x and 3.5x was the standard tournament preflop sizing bet back when poker started and now everything has changed... however, i like to know whats a good preflop bet size amount in terms of BB starting stacks.

Generally the deeper the effective stacks are the bigger the raises should be. I do 3x at 150-200bb deep early in the tournaments. If we're even deeper than that, I think 4x-ing is perfectly fine. Now, as the tournament progresses you want to lower your bet sizing because you want to risk less chips while stealing. Poker has gotten so much more aggressive these days (as compared to the old days) so 3x-ing while stealing blinds and antes is just plain spewy, since the 3bet-4bet frequencies increased a lot. Generally, the more chips you save the better. People with great confidence in their post-flop play might even minraise early on in the tournaments because they know they have an edge post-flop, and therefore there is no need to bloat the pot preflop and increase variance (especially knowing that preflop monster hands like AA-QQ have considerably less value early on in the tournaments with much deeper stacks).

This is my take on it though, I might very well be wrong.

I always 2x because I'm too lazy to click the 3bb button.

I am also interested in what the more experienced players will say. I have heard people say it depends on position. Personally I do 3x from the earlier position and the SB and 2.5x from the later positions.

A lot of people 2x from the button but at the level I play, I think 2.5x is better because if the big blind flats his range is a lot more face up but mine still isn't defined, whereas with 2x he could be calling you a lot wider so you don't have the information advantage. I think it is also a factor that at my level they don't play back at you unless they hit so you may as well let them waste the extra 0.5 BB.

Also it depends what you want to do if there is a limper. Some people go 4x to push the limper out or give him bad odds to call. Other people go 3x so the limper calls then check-folds the flop out of position without the lead (in that situation you should be c-betting a lot).

Can't go wrong with POT.

Anyone else?

i would say 3x anytime eff stacks r above 100bbs and 2.5x frm btn and co
and 2.5x when stacks r between 50-100
altho this jus isnt set in stone and evry1 has a diff approach.... this is more in general and the way i would go mostly.

Then why do people say never 3x then? Im curious but when tournaments start very deep like 200 bb plus, i can't imagine 2.2x or 2x is the standard then right?

Also the more i think about it...


Shouldn't it be like 16bb-59bb, 2x or 2.1x or 2.2x

60bb-99bb, 2.5x

100bb-149bb- 2.5x or 3x.

150bb or more- 3x?

Everyone says this but I don't think it makes much sense. Surely you just want to make the cEV decision regardless of stack sizes, so if they aren't calling you too much more when you 2.1x it, then that is optimum, if they fold loads more when you 3x it then that is the optimum steal.

The time I think this does make a difference is trying to avoid giving them good odds for a perfect 3-bet re-shove. So if the BB is at 18 BBs and you raise it to 3 BBs you make it easy for him to shove on you, and you don't have the odds to call a lot of hands. In that case you definitely want to make a 2x raise that you can fold.

Sad news is that then he has odds to call a ton of hands. Shorter stacks def encourage smaller bets because of how easy ALLIN is, but that opens other doors...

^

Yes, that's true but at my level OOP they play fit-and-fold on the flop and fold to a c-bet

But basically I am saying I accept that the stack sizes influence bet-sizing a lot more when they are short. My point more generally about medium to deep stacks is, unless ICM is already a factor and we are talking about non-linear chip values, the fact that "chips are worth more later" isn't any more of a reason for changing strategy than "chips are worth more in super high roller tournaments" - because we want to maximise chips all the time.

There may be other reasons for different bet sizing with different stack sizes, e.g. we want to have good SPR to play implied odds hands even if called, but the reason typically given doesn't seem to make much sense.