I've gone back and forth on these hands preflop. Every time I complete/check and lose a decent hand to some bull**** hand I feel like a jackass because we let a bunch of weak limping ranges in for the minimum. I'm back in the camp now that raising is better because it uncaps out range, allows us to win more pots with a c-bet, shrinks the SPR to a level that benefits top pair hands OOP and generally just makes life more difficult for our opposition. Every time I experiment with passive lines OOP I feel like a rec fish doing what everyone else does.

Raise pre.

+1

$30-$35 pre.

Not raising pre misses a ton of value.

What has us "crushed" here? Unless someone is limp calling AK, QQ+ we are not "crushed". In fact we are doing the crushing when they are calling KJ KT QJ QT type hands.

Yeah, guess I worded it wrong. Not really "crushed" but it's a hand that can put us in tough spots OOP multi-way when we flop TP or some sort of draw, mainly due to our positional disadvantage. Yes, it's likely we get called by dominated hands like KJ KT QJ QT, but we also get called by all PPs, suited connectors, suited aces, etc. etc. which can easily flop big when we flop TP or say, a straight draw for example. The whole thing comes down to us being OOP.

At the same time, I'm also certain raising has its merits too, depending on the table.

I guess it's best to mix it up and raise or complete SB depending on the players and our image at the end of the day, and not just based on "I haz KQ in SB, let's bump it up to $40 over 5 limps."

You could make the exact same argument when hero has JJ+/AK.

That's where skill and the ability to get away from TPGK come in.

Okay agreed. So what's your raising range in this spot? Besides JJ+/AK and KQs ofcourse.

Probably something like this: 77+,A7s+,K8s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,98s,ATo+,KJo+

Some hands in the bottom of that range (98s, 77, etc) I would sometimes just call with, and some of the stronger hands outside that range, like KTo or A5s, I would sometimes raise with.

Ain't that pretty damn loose? Esp from SB!

Against a few limpers? No.

Why would you raise KTo vs a few limpers from the SB? Something like 98s I understand but weak offsuit broadways? Those are big RIO hands that you're building a big pot with OOP against potentially multiple villains.

And something like A5s I feel like would be better to iso raise in position where you can better control the size of the pot. You will be dominated a lot by random trash like A9o that fish are limp calling with. Even then if it's not likely to go heads up or three way better to just limp cause of all the better Ax that will limp call.