So you want guys to fold dominated hands instead of calling off 10% of their stack pre? Of course we want fish to l/c our huge raises pre flop, idk what world you are living in.

I'm not raising to get folds, I'm raising to get 1 call, exactly 1. Just like you can't win being oop every hand, you also can't win seeing every flop multiway.

Every table has an amount that'll get you MW that's too small, an amount where only better hands will play back at you that's too big, and an amount in the middle that'll get you HU against 1 V who's range has a majority of hands worse than yours. That amount varies, you need to find it, you can't just raise a predetermined amount and pray it's right. I mean, you could, but not if you care about winning.

Yes to all.

This shows such a basic understanding of the game and how you profit from it.

Yes you can profit doing this, and in general you do not want to play a ton of pots multiway, but saying that you should always raise to get one and only one caller is laughable.

Some hands are playable MW more than others but I never want to be MW.

Give me an example of a hand, the position, stack sizes, and V descriptions where you raise and are looking to get called by at least 2 guys.

If you're IP ott to 2 guys, and are pricing out a fd, you can bet 3/4 PSB and the first guy to act after you do requires 30% equity to continue, which isn't enough, if he calls with a fd he's doing it unprofitably. But if the second guy to act after you bet has the draw, and the middle guy calls your 3/4 PSB, then the guy closing the action only requires about 23% equity to continue, which he can do profitably because of a little IO or if he has an overcard that gives him the hand also.

To price out the guy closing the action if he has a fd and 1 overcard, 12 outs, you'd need to bet more than the pot. And that's just insane. You're just bleeding $ if the middle guy ever wakes up with anything.

You get into impossible spots with multiple opponents.



If you're just going to flop quads every hand and go for 3 streets of value, then yeah, I'd want every flop to be seen by 9 guys. Knowing you'll flop unbeatable hands is the only reason I'd want to see a flop MW for a raise.

GRUNCH
1: depends on players. If they are tricky or sticky, no. If they are passive, yes.
2: yes. Two overs and a back door flush draw.
3: no. Take the free card and try to hit the gut shot
4: yes. Nut flush draw, this is a great flop for you. Bet and build the pot a little, possibly take a free turn.
5: no, check. vs love to put you on AK. They will float here. Check, and maybe get a free card or maybe check raise if the right kind of V bets at you. Check fold is not the worst here. I feel that 'giving up' with AK OOP isn't a big mistake when whiff the flop.

If I raise in EP and get called by a tough player who has position on me and is capable of floating and bluff-raising, I might not mind getting a few more callers who will create a protected pot so that I am less likely to get bluffed if I have the best hand.

Preflop is often tricky in a lot of games. There is often a very fine line between taking the pot outright, getting it HU, or going lol 5way to the flop, and this fine line can often boil down to whether the first person after our raise calls or not. Obviously, we do the best we can to narrow it to HU, but sometimes the poker gods laugh at us. So that will often leave us in these type of situations where we again just have to do the best we can.

The most important piece of information for me in this spot is that the villains are unknown (which also means we are unknown). We have no idea if these guys are loose calling stations, fit/fold nits or aggro maniacs. They have no idea if we are an uber tight only-bet-the-nuts nit or a barrelling maniac. So I basically don't like any plan that involves double+ barrelling because we have zero clue whether it will work or not. If we had more history with the villains, then obviously that could change.

The board is also not a great board to cbet on because there are no real high cards to represent. So no pair is likely to fold to our flop cbet, which just leaves us on the turn against an unknown. Will he fold to the double barrel, especially on a good double barrel card? We have no clue.

Personally, I'd probably cbet hand#3 and hand#4. Hand#3 we only have a gutshot, so pretty unlikely to improve, and obviously we're never going to win at showdown with 9 high, so it's just a flat out bluff and hope we can steal the pot. Hand#4 we have decent equity with the nut flush draw and the overs, plus it's always possible we fold out a better hand right now, plus it sets us up to most likely take a free card on the turn, so I'd cbet for all these reasons.

The other hands, meh. Some of the time we actually do have the best hand here, but I think for the most part I just hope it checks to the next street and then see what happens.

GcluelessNLnoobG

You're equity plummets though with a 3rd or 4th guy in the pot. You're less likely to get bluffed but also less likely to make a hand that'll win and since you're oop you're probably not winning w/o the cards.

The way to combat that situation for me is to seat-change or tighten your EP raising range.

This with the very rare possibility of doing something in hand three against certain opponents.

Playing pots HU is nice, but where I play unless you raise an abnormally large amount you will never get a pot HU. I can raise to 25$ in 1-2 and get two callers the majority of the time. I know that's profitable in the long run but it also means you're not seeing many flops HU. If your advice is to raise even more, I'm not buying that. At a certain point, a conspicuously large raise only gets worse to fold, and better to call/raise.