I have messed around with varying my opening size randomly, doing it based on early, mid and lp. But now i bave decided to just open 15 dollars at 1-2 95 percent of the time. (the other 5 percent is just to watch people go "huh, no 15?)

I want opinions on this. Do other people open the same amount all the time? I feel it def disguises my hands but can piss off the fish. People are used to the 8-12 range and get mad with the constant 15. thoughts?

i think that's a pretty good opening.

at 1/2 it might not even be enough....lol.

play the player

if youre at a table full of nits then you probably want to lower it to 10-12

at an aggressive, gamblish table then 15 or more is sufficient

I personally do not like big over raises preflop as I want to extract max value post flop and can recognize when im behind

also at loose passive preflop tables I limp behind or even open limp with small pps as no villain will isolate and many will join in to creat ea great multi way hand


also i come from an online background where 3bb is standard

yeah for me it depends on the table. there are nights i can raise to 7 and get only 1 caller. other nights it takes a raise to 12 to get less than 4.

another point to make is that if you have a small PP then go ahead and make it 3x ull get enough callers that your priced in to set mine and it discourages other players from RR to price you out.

Most 1/2 players don't pay enough attention to figure this strategy out and adjust their play to combat it.

I always run into players that only bet $15 in 1-2, i think you should mix it up with betting $10-15 if your the first to open.

I go entirely on what works for the table when playing 1/2. I have played at 1/2 tables where $8 would fold out the table most of the time and tables where I had to go to $20 to keep the flops from going 6 way or more. I just watch what most people are raising to and how many callers it gets and work from there. If I want to open before I have a handle on what a good bet is, I go with $12 - $15 depending on how aggressive the table looks.

There's rarely a purpose to disguising your hand because people at 1/2 don't know how to adjust.

If you're raising to 15 with your value hands and people still call, keep doing it.

I would love to see the action in the games you guys play in making it $15 Preflop.

Poker is extremely dynamic so the answer is obviously table/player dependent. For example my standard opening raise size at 1/2 is $8, I play with mostly tight passive players so this amount works for me, when I am playing at a loose table $12-$15 might be better.

So you should never be going into a game thinking 'I'm gonna raise $12 today' you should be constantly adjusting to the table dynamics.

Bad advice in here. It depends on your opening range.

Sure, if you have a opening raise size of $8 in a 1/2 your range is wide.

If you're playing in a really loose game where you get multiple callers when you open for $15, then you obviously can't be playing speculative hands anymore, you have to tighten up you're range considerably.

Assuming there are no limpers, I usually stick with a single raise size. On occasion when I want to throw in something stupid like J9s utg, then I'll drop down to like $10 to mitigate my expected losses.

I once experimented with making $20 my standard opening raise, and man did that really piss people off. They were even going so far as to 3bet shove on me to teach me a lesson. I called twice and stacked them both times, and finally had to ask whats with the insanity. One guy simply said "b/c you always make it $20" and that was it. He didnt elaborate but I presume he simply did not like me raising that much, it bothered him somehow (probably because he knows he shouldnt be calling with bull**** hands, but he wants to call them so badly). Ultimately I decided I didnt like bloating pots so quickly and needed room postflop to make decisions, so I still keep my opening size around $10 or so at a 1/2 game.

I vary my raise size. I also come in for a raise 1st or 2nd always, but thats my style and it works for me.

My raise size is dependent on what I want to accomplish, and of course the table I want to accomplish it on. My image at the table will also come into play.

Often first in from CO or btn I will raise 6 to 10 since I want the blind to feel priced in and play me OOP.

Small pairs I tend to raise 6 somtimes 7 8 or 10, I want to build a pot that will let me stack $150 stack.s..If effective stacks for a large number of plaeyrs is larger $300+ I raise more with my pairs....I want it to be easy to get stacks in. With a bunch of short stacks I often fold small pairs in EP.

My default raising size with bigger hands is 10 to 12... but I'm pretty comfortable playing these hands multi way. In games where I'm not comfortable playing multi way, (lots of agro players) I try to shorten my spr, and raise more 15 to 20 (though I often try to play these games shorter stacked so it gets easy to lower spr.

If i'm thinking of raising after limpers, with TP type hands I plan my raise size around my expected SPR, which sometimes lead me to limp behind hands orther 2+2ers like to raise...

If ive been running cold, and the table is talking about how tight I am, I widen my rang and raise 6 to 8...sick respect can be fun to play....

I personally make it 3.5-5BB +1BB/caller. This could be due to different stakes though. I don't mind more too much but I think if you notice a few people not calling your raises watch out for when they do cause they're likely to have stronger hands. The other thing I would consider is how likely it is that you get 3bet and stacksize of these players. For example you have $200 and an aggressive and thinking player (eg solid post flop) 3bets you in position to 40, you're in a bad spot with most holdings. This person could have say AJs+ 99+ KQs & occassionally suited connectors.