First off this advice assumes that you are willing to admit that you are a weak to average player (which is something that alot of people will now do. Second this is off of Daniel Negreanu's blog so it is not my advice. Third i have been appling this to my game and has hel;ed me big time

Basically what he is suggesting is that if you feel you have average skill that anytime you open preflop your minimum bet should be atleast 5times the BB. His reason is that most weaker players are not as strong as the rest of the table after the flop, and that its is more important for average players to just take it down before the flop. what if you want to reraise? Then he suggests a raise of no less than 7BB. Im aware of my skill and consider myself an average player and i have been applying this to my game and it has definitely improved my winnings.

This holds true for live cash games especially. Every $1/2 table I've played at so far has completely standard preflop raises of at least 5XBB. and $15 raises happen a lot too.

I too have learned to play this way preflop and it makes my game much stronger. Raising only about 2.5-3XBB is not nearly enough.

But your goal, when you raise, is mainly to get the weaker players to call with weaker holdings correct? You can't really be raising to 5x with AA hoping everyone will fold for a $3 win, we WANT a caller, or callers. (Unless this is geared toward tournament and then I could see the merits in wanting a fold at all times)

One lesson I have learned in my many years of playing 1/2 is don't try and be tricky with big pairs out of position. Make a solid raise, make a statement. You don't want more than 2 callers, regardless of position, when holding a big pair.

Better to win a small pot of $3 than lose a big one. One thing to remember: AA/KK pre-flop are big hands. But once the flop comes, all they are is a pair (unless you improve to a set of course).

[QUOTE=atsuss33;41015036]One lesson I have learned in my many years of playing 1/2 is don't try and be tricky with big pairs out of position. Make a solid raise, make a statement.

This is good stuff. The only exception would be if the table has some preflop maniacs that are almost guaranteed to 3 bet you.
OR if you've been playing loose and opponents are ready to 3 bet you cause they don't respect your raising