I started reading Jonathon Little's book "strategies for beating small stakes poker cash games".

In the book Little states that you should open for less than a pot size raise even at 1-2; he recommends $6.
Has anyone employed this strategy? How did it work
out?

I did, I like it. I get more edge having a higher spr post.

That being said I still raise 4bb+1 when there are limpers.

Do you get a ton of calls?

I typically raise pot for multiple limpers.

It depends. What I've noticed is people are calling $6 or $7 with the same hands they call $12 with. So I occasionally get 4-5 callers and have to play straight forward. But in reality it's not like making it $12 pre would have gotten me hu so I'd be in the same spot with a lower spr.

Also I tend to make it $7 pre not $6 when I'm opening.

Imo, if people arent sensitive to sizing, make it bigger. If they are, make it smaller and keep in the weakest part of their range.

Haven't read Jonathan Little's book. What's his rationale?

Hey $6 is terrible in a vacuum at a 1/2 table. You’re leaving a lot of money on the table vs very bad players. The only reason to use $6 is if you’re OTB and blinds are nits and are inelastic to preflop sizings or something similar, which is hardly true

Small sizings work in games where people actually fold pre as they offer the opener good odds to steal the blinds. Small sizings don't make sense in games where you're opening a range that expects to get called pre and almost never wins the blinds.

In the games I play 7 seems to be enough. Occasionally I'll get 3 or 4 calls but usually 1 or 2. I size up if the lineup is loose or splashy. I messed around with 6 and even 5 but I got so many calls I might as well be limping in. I make it 12 with one limper and add a BB for each additional limper. This usually enough to isolate somebody.

There are times to do this, sure.

Most of the time when you are raising you want fewer callers. (Exception being super premium value hands) The reason is that the more players are in a pot, the more straightforward you have to play. You don't have room to bluff or even exploitatively value bet because the field will be too strong. If you're raising speculative hands in early or mid position to 6, and getting multiple callers, you're only costing yourself money.

Times I would open to a smaller size would be at a very tight table where even small raises are getting a lot of folds, or if it folded to me on the button. In those cases I would prefer raising a smaller amount -- we force players behind us to defend with a weaker range we can take advantage postflop, or they can overfold and give us the blinds which is fine too. That's better than raising 5x+ and allowing the tight players behind to play correctly by folding often.

If you're at a 1/2 table where you have to resort to 3bb opens you should gtfo.

So essentially you are raising larger to help your opponents play better against you? You are basically saying that raising to 5x+ gets your opponents to fold hands they should be folding.

I thought the goal was to make our opponents make mistakes, not make them play properly.

Also I don't know if the math backs you up, raising to $6 getting 8 calls with AA against top 40% ranges you have 36% equity. That is just over $19 in equity ($13 in profit). Now if I drop that to $10 and 2 villains with top 15% of hands we have 73% equity. Or $21 in equity ($11 in profit).

So from an equity calcs you are profiting 1 extra bb in that example.

If they are tight players. We raise large normally because players generally aren't that tight and they will make a mistake by calling.

Our large raise size is an exploitative adjustment. Nits actually exploit that just by naturally continuing with their nitty range.

I meant assuming the raise size doesn't change. If you have AA, you would rather have 8 callers at $10 than 1 caller at $10. If you have 76s, you would prefer the one caller. (also a bit unlucky that the entire table has a top 40% hand isn't it? That's a few hundred to one against...)

When i was playing 1-2 there was a player always open with 6. He lose almost every time.
Aces cracked, Kings cracked, Queens cracked. Not good raise. To many callers maybe 5 or 6. It's not a good raise. Normal should be something like 10 or 12 lets say if you open first without limbers.

Raising to 5bbs or larger is great if the opponents are so oblivious to the point that their ranges when facing a 5bb or larger raise are roughly the same as when they are facing a 3bb raise. The problem is that many players tighten up significantly as they face larger raises, so raising large essentially forces them to play well. Raising smaller will require you to get better at multiway postflop poker, which many small stakes players are deathly afraid of. Sometimes you have to make big folds!

Raising larger is also a good idea if the rake is high. Clearly though, you should avoid games with high rake.