Only a few hands into sitting down, I got AQo in the SB. There were 3 limpers. I raised to 20 dollars, BB folded but the other 3 limpers ended up calling.

Exactly one orbit later, I got QQ in the SB,with the exact same 3 limpers. This time I just completed.

Should I have raised in that situation? I didn't raise because of the previous hand, I felt like those guys weren't going to fold and I didn't want to again play a raised pot OOP against multiple players. If was in the button I definitely would have raised for value.

Wat? Of course raise. You want people calling with what are presumably weaker hands. Make it 25-30 tho

what do you mean you didn't want to play 'a raised pot OOP against multiple players' WITH QQ? i'd have rather limped the AQo ... you should pound QQ preflop. then pound the flop. then, probably, pound the turn. and river.

you have a monster hand against calling stations. get $$$ in the pot.

don't like to play postflop?

just shove

imo

I don't like the raise with AQo. If you were on the button, you'd want to raise it, but at 2/3, you're likely to get all 3 callers and don't want to play that out of position. I'd raise it with two limpers though.

QQ should be definitely be raised though. The only reasons to limp there don't apply to your game.

Raise all day.
You want them to think you're stealing when you have Queens

Jesus.

If your not comfortable raising with queens out of the small blind then you should probably just fold.

If you have the button then its ok to raise queens. But any other position, fold any hand but aces. Kings are questionable. You can raise kings in the cutoff.

Well it's not true, lol, flatting is definitely still much better than folding.

Flatting is better than folding, yes.

If you play the hand correctly in every other way.

But if you are so weak and passive that you think flatting is a good idea, you're going to play the hand poorly in other ways too, and you might actually be losing money if you flat.

And since OP is this weak and passive, it's likely unprofitable for him to be limping the AQ until he learns to play better. But he needs to play it to learn it and should definitely be limping AQ. Just like he should be raising QQ, even if he's losing money doing it because of his other mistakes and fears. You can't learn by playing scared.

You might as well say OP should not play poker since he's so weak.

I was both agreeing with you and disagreeing with you. Sunchips is right from a making money now point of view, but very wrong from a long-term learning perspective. It's better to lose money in order to get better than to make your game worse to compensate for leaks.

OK, really, is this whole thread a level?

Sunchips wasn't really leveling, he was informing OP what preflop strategy would be the most profitable (or least unprofitable maybe) for him right now given his current weak/passive mindset. I mean, he was mocking OP, but not really leveling. Following his advice would be terrible though.

You have a premium hand. It is criminal to not punish the limpers with a raise.

Yeah.

OP, you should basically always raise TT+ and AK pre if there are no previous raisers. If you're worried about too many callers making the hand difficult to play, that just means that you should raise a larger amount.

Not only should you have raised, it's a horrible mistake not to. If you'll get three callers every time you raise to 20, then raise to 22, or 24, or 26, etc, until you get to a point where you are still getting value but not from 100% of their range.

This is where I was going with my post... But I guess some people took it seriously?

I'm a gullible, naive nit, and I got the sarcasm...

QQ is a raise hand in the SB 'because' you are OOP with a premium hand and you want to thin the herd and build a pot. How did the AQ hand go? You didnt tell us ... Did you have to show?

You see a lot of limping with big pairs at 1-2 (I even do it some) but you want to build a pot when you have a premium hand. If someone hits their 67s then so be it .. you at least made them pay PF when they were way behind.

I agree that if you are getting your raises called multi-way then you need to increase them until you only get 2 max callers, hopefully HU. There must be something in your image that creates this or this game is just playing bigger than 1-2 ... which is fine.

Dont change your raise size based on hand strength .. you can change it based on table position and situation (callers in front .. et) or just change it all the time like I do ... I use 7, 11 and 16 to open and I use them with my whole range in all positions at the table.

Do what you are comfortable doing from early position as the table permits ... but dont be afraid to make money on your premium hands. AND have the courage to fold them when yuo know you are beat. GL

You're not stating one of the most important parts of information that you need to know to make the proper decisions here: stack sizes. The smaller the stacks, the more you should be raising postflop in order to create a small SPR where you can stack off postflop on safe boards. The bigger the stacks, the more you can lean towards playing passively and playing postflop poker.

Another important piece of information would be the properties of the limpers (especially if any of them are loose and will likely see a flop). The more straightforward / non-tricky they are, the more you should be raising; the more tricky / good they are, the more you should play passively OOP.

GimoG

Bit nitty on my part but this is not exactly right. We want to raise here for value with what is presumably the best hand. It's purely a value play. Thinning the field arguments are not really the reason why we should be raising. I suppose a case could be made that thinning the field gives us a better chance to realize better equity and thus that is, inherently a "value play".

But the reason we are raising here first and foremost is to get value out of hands that aren't as good as ours.

Based on villains don't raise AQ again but raise QQ always

Yes raise, this is basic poker strategy, raise when we think we have the best hand.

Stack sizes are important as to how we play it OOP after the flop.

Raising preflop based soley on the fact we most likely have the best hand is overrated, imo. Stack sizes, position and opponent tendencies must also be taken into account.