Happened thrice yesterday:

6-7 limpers to tight Hero in BB who hasn't played a hand in an hour

Hero looks down at AA/KK/QQ, raises to $33 once, everyone folds, raises to $27 next time, everyone folds

Is it okay to pick up $20ish variance free?

Problem is if Hero raises to $20ish, even if one player calls, many others will call, and then Hero has to play a big pot OOP, and win small/lose big to speculative hands.

But then again, yesterday I saw a guy in LP (I know it's different positions but whatever) raise to $15 over 2/3 limpers with KK, flop comes K88 and he stacks a guy who limp/called with 89o.

Point is, are we trying to keep these junky hands in making small raises, or just trying to thin the field to max 1-2 callers?

It's really hard to determine whether to raise small or big with these big hands, most of the times, nobody ever calls my big raises... and small raises means everyone calling and playing big pots with one pair, looking to get sucked out on.

Another huge problem is, my hand is face up anyway when I make these raises preflop.

"It depends"

If you are only raising JJ+/AK from the blinds and only making these huge raises with those hands, then you need to adjust your game. I love when the nits just limp every hand and then all of a sudden they raise out of the blinds or open to $15+ in EP with no limpers or call a $15-20 raise from the blinds and they just always have a big pair, makes it so easy to play against. If there's a few limps in a standard 1/3 game I'm still raising PPs/79s+/KJo+ from the blinds most of the time so I tend to get paid off more often when I do have KK+. Chances are you're limping too much and not raising enough hands preflop.

6BB with no variance? I don't see a problem.

It's fine to pick up that dead money. If you can raise to $30 and pick up blinds usually or raise to $20 and get 3+ callers, I'm raising to $30 if 100+bb deep. If you have $250 or so or less then I'd raise to $20 hopin to get three calls.

Don't force the action. But the clear adjustment is to play Your normal game but raise to $30 or even $40 with any two cards when there's a bunch of limps. This way u pick up a bunch of blinds and you can keep doing this. They will let u get away with this OR they will call u lighter (so u adjust by raising only premiums). Win win either way for u


Example: 6 limps and I have 92o in SB. I'm raising to $40 pre to ensure they all fold. I just picked up 7.5bb variance free with air. Do this a couple more times and print mooney

Bad game or youre just playing whey too tight.

There is not much of an argument, its the result you want. But for the long term it can't be good playing this tight. (For your bottom line)

As slim mentioned above, if you start to mix in some plays based on your tight image then you become a tight player capable of making moves in spots, a tough player indeed.