basic preflop question.

Suppose you are sitting in a 1/2 game with 100bb stacks. There are 2 or 3 limpers who are not particularly bad or good (they may limp AXo but won't call a large raise with it and won't stack off lightly), and you are in the small blind with AJ. Clearly you have an equity advantage but a positional disadvantage. What's your default play? In general, what is your raising range in this situation?

If these players are fit or fold I'd raise smallish, or about the table standard which is usually smallish for me. I'm not raising here to take the blinds, it's a value bet. Against more limpers or at a standard loose passive stationy table I'll complete. Against average 1/2 players the biggest mistake they make is that they call too often. So your strategy should not be to expect folds when you Cbet air.

Where I play, you have an okay shot at taking down the blinds with a medium strength raise. This may be a leak in my game, but I usually (not always) complete here, especially if one of the limpers was a tight player from EP.

My experience is that such raises usually only get flatted by pp's and occasionally AQ (from nit or old man in EP). The raise pushes out all the A-x suited hands. You are OOP. You miss the flop 2/3 of the time, and everyone thinks you have Ace-broadway and folds on A high flops.

Raising sets up the opportunity to bluff K and Q high flops, but villains often won't fold their pp hands right away IP. Often you have to fire another barrel on the turn to convince pp's, and this gets expensive when someone hits. Much better stealing when you are the one IP.

Is completing pre a leak?

In general if they are playing 1/2 and limping they will be absolutely ****ing awful and will rarely use their positional advantage well enough to make me want to turn down the equity edge. You could probably raise here, c/f every flop you miss and still turn more profit than checking, imo.

Pretty sick game where their limp call range is pairs and AQ!!!!!!! Never seen it in my life.

Getting an SPR of 4-5 with this hand and winning lots of 30-50bb pots against the huge amount of ****e they will call with is great.

Depends on my image for the night. Good image? Raise. Bad image? Complete.

+1

most 1/2nl players play their hands face up you can outplay them post flop out of position.

raise preflop, 2 callers. cbet flop and they will fold if they miss, if they call, if you have a draw you can blocking bet turn for a ridiculously small amount and they will call and if you bink river you can rape them and they will still oftentimes call you and if you miss just fold. And even better when you hit your hand you can valuetown them all the way to bustville and they will pay you off. And when you completely whiff you can just c-bet flop and if called just surrender

add all that up and its insanely profitable.

I think image is less important here since majority of our villains are going to be Level 1 and will not care about our image...

I think the most important factor is villain competency and tendencies. Fit-n-fold types and stations are going to be the ones who we will fleece. And most players at this level fall into those categories.

Don;t mean to be picking on your posts tonight but have to disagree again. I think auto cbetting is total spew.

Obv in my original post I wasn't advocating c.f every missed flop, just saying I think ir would still be plenty profitable. The same is true for auto cbetting.

One thing you should really be able to guestimate even randoms fairly quickly is a rough limping range (between frequency and showdowns). This is the kind of hard work that people often just skip and lable people TAG, NITs etc bit really helps maximise profits and cbetting in this kind of spot.

We want to raise here if Villian is willing to call with worse holdings. Generally speaking in 1/2 if a player has committed $2 they are willing to commit up to $20 when it is raised to them. I think if many Villians Ace is suited or even any broadway or wheel combination, they would call a sizeable bet. This leaves out only Ace 6- Ace 9 off. Considering the strength of AJss and this assessment, I would raise in almost any position when limped to.
I would also suggest that the answer depends on the individual's post flop ability.

How is auto c-betting 2 or less villains spew when the odds of connecting with the board with 2 unpaired cards is around 27%?

I'm all for ranging our villains, but the fact that they turn their hands face up and fold when they miss and never float with the intent to bluff or steal is too easy to exploit to pass up a c-bet when we miss. And when we c-bet its not like we have to blast the pot to realize fold equity. Alot of times we can c-bet the same amount as our preflop raise to fold out villains that whiff. Hell, we can sometimes even bet less than our flop raise.

Under those circumstances I don't see how c-betting is spew. 2 or less villains I c-bet near 100%. 3 or more villains I don't really c-bet unless I hit a favorable board like 8 8 2r and have a good image.

I'm punishing limpers anytime I can. From the blinds I'm using a merged range and AJs is well within it. I would raise here and cbet most flops that even have a single spade

This is also a great 3betting hand from the blinds


My 2cents

I agree with DGIH...if there are 2-3 limpers as described by OP and you raise to say 17 from the blinds...you are only getting 1 or 2 callers max. If you don't follow that up with a cbet I think you are leaking more chips than if you just fire on almost any flop. Giving up initiative vs 1-2 villains is a bad idea

Even in the spots where I'm checking if they bet weak I would c/r often

There are very few flops I'm not cbetting 1-2 villains dang near 100% of the time and planning on firing a f-ton of turn barrels

FYI I rarely disagree with either of you. You are both excellent posters


My 2cents

what? Come on now. There's no reason to auto c bet into 2 opponents. Reads, stacks, board texture, and images matter.

C betting too much is a leak.

The above analysis could seemingly justify raising nearly ATC from the blinds.



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Why?