Afternoon all,

I am through my first read of NLHETP, half of the COTM's in the best of sticky and the 1-2 chapters in The Course. I have about 225 hours at live 1/2 with a $6/hour winrate. I lean on the Tight side of TAG.

I am committing myself to Miller's recommendations about aggressive opening a tight range preflop and raise anytime its my action and no one has raised yet.

However, I believe I am not using sizing to my advantage and find I dont have a thorough approach when choosing a raise size.

I will ask a few specific question, but welcome all feedback about the topic

Does anyone have a beginners structure to bet sizing based on position and number of players expected to enter the pot....something that can act a guide until I get more experience under my belt

Walking the line between value for AA-JJ, and seeing a multi-way flop is a struggle. What are your thoughts on this; especially when you expect to get at least a couple callers.

All things averaged, typically effective stacks are 100BB, there is often high hand promotions running bringing in lots of loose action.

Thanks in advance
LL

This is set up more by the dynamics of the table. Sometimes standard is 8x others 3x, be consistent with your opens. Typically 1/2 players do not like to fold, therefore pay close attention to position. Tighten your range early and open for less (maybe 5x) and increase in later positions and open your range depending on number of limpers....5x open plus pot.

I like to go $12 +$2 for every limper. I will raise much bigger at certain tables or against certain villains, and very occasionally smaller. In the rare occasions I am opening from the button (entire table folds to me), I go $10.

This varies wildly from table to table at 1/2. I would suggest starting at $15+$2 per limper and work from there. Adjust up and down a bit based what other people are opening and how many callers they are getting. That is a very big open but when starting you need to start with a tight value range and big raise size.

Once you get more experience you can cut that down a little, the average opening size with no limpers was usually $10-$12. I played at tables where opening ranges ran from $5 to $20. At 1/2 it's very hard to judge how many people will call because villains often don't have sensible calling ranges and are very quick to think they are priced once there are a couple of callers.

If you want some type of blanket rule, this is pretty solid. Certain opponents and certain stack sizes could require some variation, but I try to keep my open sizing as consistent as possible.

Pretty much what the other said, just look at what other people are raising with and see how the table reacts, sometimes 3x will get folds all round other time 10x will get 7 callers it is really table dependant once you play a lot more you will get a good feel of the table quicker and will adjust accordingly

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I think it depends on the game, but seems large. $7 otb should accomplish the same as $10, and its better for us to risk $7 to win $3 than $10 to win $3, especially if we are opening wide on the button.

However, I will open to $10+$2 for limpers instead of $12 in most positions. People just don't fold.

My general raise sizing at 1/2, 1/3 and 2/5 is 5x + x per limper.

So if you're UTG at 1/2, you'd raise to $10
If you're on BTN at 1/2 and there's 3 limpers, you'd raise to $16
And so on...

But you need to adjust based upon table dynamics. If it's an extremely loose table and you're regularly getting 2+ callers, try raising bigger. On the other hand, if you're getting very little action, try lowering it to 4x + x per limper.

these are all great recommendations and exactly what will help as I get more hours under my belt. FYI based on all the feedback my raises have been too small most of the time and not adjusted for expected number of players.

Thanks for the insights
LL

This is pretty much what I do in the 1/2 games I play in. As others have mentioned, it's so game dependent though. Using this as a baseline has worked well for me in most games, and then I'll adjust a bit one way or the other if the game dictates that to be necessary. If I have to substantially decrease my sizing then it's usually a pretty good indication that I'm in a crap game. LOL

There are certain spots where your sizing will vary, but in looser games I'll usually go bigger from UTG and EP just to make sure I'm not seeing flops 6-7 ways. It's definitely exploitable if there's a couple good players at your table, but in most low stakes games the players don't even notice, and the other players will still call or fold based solely on their hand. The increased sizing just helps to force them to tighten up their ranges a bit (even if they are doing it subconsciously).