absolutely not.

It means that if they iso you and the flop is 257r they will prolly check behind with out an over pair but will bet 2/3 pot on a J72 pot hu with you and then bet again when another broadway hits. Or if they are isoing suited braodways like QTss they will bet the same j72 r with one spade flop if another spade hits or another broadway hits or a 9 hits for a little over 1/2 - 2/3pot

I can get away with raising small because I have a tricky image and some of my opponents will be afraid that I am trying to lure them into reraising. That's also why I think I can get away with EP limping more than other players.

Add them to your opening range, maybe not always, but certainly some percentage of times.

Fold all day long.

I personally don't play well enough post flop to open with it.

Raise - if stacks are deep and table is playing tight passive with almost zero 3-bet %. Come in for more than a pot sweetener, something like 5xBB+ at 1/2, maybe less at 2/5.

Limp - same as above but if stacks are a bit shorter (~100BB effective)

Fold - Anytime there's any consistent PF action, any donks/maniacs, added bonus of being less exposed to set-over-set situations.

No, wrong reason(s) to determine whether to 3bet, especially when stacks are deep.

A tight passive table actually makes playing weak PP out of position a bad thing. You end up value owning yourself a ton.

If villains are passive, why put in extra money in the pot before you make a hand? Just limp, setmine, then value the crap out of them.

Does your answer change if the table is weak tight passive?

tight passive =/= loose passive. Tight passive tables are semi-bluff central. You're describing loose passive callers.

I just 4x them along with the rest of my opening range in most games

It might be worthwhile to create an open limp range that is somewhat balanced/protected (more than 22-55/Axs) for specific lineups in tougher games, and you can probably get away with just open limping 22-55/Axs in some soft/passive games.

In tough full ring games they should probably just be folded though.

I choose not to open limp ever bc I think there are some meta implications that I am too lazy to deal with, and I don't feel like worrying about whether certain players will be able to figure out what my face up open limp range looks like and then deal with that. I'm probably sacrificing a small amount of ev by doing this, but I can live with that.

I either limp or raise std. I don't like to vary my raise size on hand strength pre-flop.

Of course. Against weak passive, it would be considered thin value with pocket pair.

No, what you describe is perfect opponent.

Someone who doesn't 3bet without nuts and someone who folds without nuts.

Actually if you're only opening AA and 4! It UTG most people are going to have a much easier time adjusting to you than if you 4! 22

If you're at a game where there is too much 3betting going on to profitably raise small pockets you can consider removing the 22-55 hands and replacing them with the A2s-A5s ones and use them as 4bet bluffs when you think you're getting 3bet light. But again, if you feel like there's a need to do this you're probably not at a good table.

I limp/call like a boss because ppl usually raise way too small and it ends up being a 4 way pot when it comes back to me.

I want to see a flop with 22-55 as much as I possibly can, so my strat is designed to do that.

If I raise, it's standard raise only - small raises are transparent

If I raise, it's because the table is nitty (for Aus standards) and I think it's likely to only go 3 way and I can win the hand in ways other than flopping a set - representing an A etc.

or we're really deep and I'm happy calling a 3 bet

I will limp if either, a raise is likely to go 5 way + and I'm going to have to check fold most flops or if I'm at a 3 bet happy table, we're not that deep and I'm gonna have to fold before the flop too often

and some tables are limp happy and I limp more than just small pairs so I'm happy to limp in those scenarios

For the guys who want to limp with them, if you limp and can just c/f when you miss and c/r and get paid when you hit, if the player pool is that bad that you profitably play this strategy, then the player pool is bad enough so you can raise with it and win big when you hit and often enough without SD.

So much AIDS.

Just open normally (3x for me). And I'm pretty happy if I open 44 UTG and get 4 or more callers. The more people call the better odds I get on my raise to flop a set. I could check fold without a set every single time and still come out ahead if a bunch of people call.

If the table is 3 bet happy just fold.

Lol.

So, say you're UTG & play ~12% of all starting hands, you always o/r for 3x the BB? Even if it means there's a good chance of getting 4/5 calllers vs.. your AA?

What is AIDS?

Yea, that's a terrible result. Only reason to raise is if you can usually get it HU or 3 way and have a good chance of taking it down post flop. Going 5 way to the flop in a limped pot would better for you because you get the same odds, but greater stack depth.

You can't open to a large sizing to "get fewer callers" if you want to have any kind of reasonable non-nitty raising range. Most of your raising range should be fine with playing 4-5 way pots, and if it's not, you are raising the wrong hands or don't play well post flop.

Assuming 150 BB starting stacks, I'd much rather play a 25BB pot with 145 BB behind then a 5BB pot with 149BB behind. It's going to be pretty difficult to win a big pot in the second scenario without coolering someone.

I don't open/raise with various sizes based on what I hold. I asked if you always open/raise for 3x. I guess that's what you do. Where I play, you can't o/r for 3x w/o expecting at least 4/5 callers, unless 7 people have trash.

People are going to call $6 with 64s+ in LP. Some will do it in MP if the UTG+1 & 2 already called my UTG open.

If I o/r for 3x & get 3 callers & a guy wakes up with AK & raises to $30/$36 & my stack is $300 [which is max buy-in] it will be hard [if not impossible] to make 15x the additional $24+ I have to call. Thus, I've just put a torch to $6.00, because, I don't know if it's AK or JJ+.

I recently went 48x in a row without flopping a set of 6s & when I did, the guy rivered a 4 card str8. It wasn't until the 56th time that I was dealt 66 that I flopped a set again. That time I won a pot with a return of 15x+ my pf investment. I finally, just over the last 10 days, flopped a set of 6s 3 times, allowing me to probably recoup my losses over those 1st 55 times of being dealt 66.

When you o/r for $6 UTG where I play, you are opening yourself up to getting 3!, so you better be willing to put in more money.

The only way, that I can think of, that opening for $6 UTG would work, is that your opponents know you & don't know if you have AA, 22, AKs because they know you always open for $6. Otherwise, a table full of unknowns are thinking your raise is a pot sweetener. Which is exactly what it is with 44.

So, they would have had to of seen you o/r UTG with KK/AA for $6.00 before the $6 is going to get any respect.

It's either that, or, I suck at poker.

Squid do you mind discussing what your default for small pp's in early position was in vegas games, and why you are/are considering doing in differently in your new location? What's different about the new games and what adjustments are you considering for handling EP pp in them?

I wasn't saying your range should only be AA. I was saying you can't have a value range any wider than KK+, which means you can't rep a whole lot to run a r/4b all-that-often. Which means that having r/4b in your arsenal doesn't the solve the problem of how to play your range when you're raising 15% UTG and getting squeezed by a good button often this deep. Which means you have to tighten your UTG opening range (first hands to go are 22-55), and 4b the bottom of this new range (the very very very bottom; like 4-8 combos only[1]).

You can run this play with 22-55 once in a blue moon (like when the seconds hand on your watch is at exactly 30, or it's 2h2s exactly or something), but it's not a solution for how to play this part of your range.


[1] It's also worth noting that we can't flat AKo OOP in this spot, so this will be our best candidate for 4!ing, and also given this 3! sizing, there's a good chance that villain doesn't have room to 5b/f, so we can't rely on being able to r/4b/shove AKo, which might very well mean that our 4b bluffing range is probably AKo and AKo only ... and even that is 4!ing exploitatively wide.