standard opening raises in nl

[Kayyen 0]

Hey Guys,I've recently (about a month ago) switched to playing NL live. At my local casino, you're looking at a 1/2 $100max NL game. I have often read about standardizing your opening raises (and that's something I've really incorporated into my play), but, I'm not sure if my current standard is reasonable. If I'm opening the pot, I'm making it $12 to go, which .. seems like a lot. My buddy and I have debated whether or not it's too much.Any thoughts?

[BeanGW 0]

It depends. If you're playing 1/2 and you are on the button and it's limped to you, you can generally get away with raising to $6If you are early with a big hand you want to protect, I'd say you'd want to raise to $8-$10In the middle with a huge hand (Aces, K's or A-K soooted) following a raise to $10, I'd double it to $20.

[UglyJimStudly 0]

I'm actually not a fan of a standard opening raise, I prefer a small range - 2xBB to 4xBB. 6xBB seems high, depending on what your criteria are for a raise you might find you only get callers when they have a decent chance of beating you.

[MrNiceGuy 0]

It depends.  If you're playing 1/2 and you are on the button and it's limped to you, you can generally get away with raising to $6If you are early with a big hand you want to protect, I'd say you'd want to raise to $8-$10In the middle with a huge hand (Aces, K's or A-K soooted) following a raise to $10, I'd double it to $20.

I usually do the opposite - I typically open-raise to around 3xBB in early position and 4-5xBB in late position, because I've got worse hands on average in late position and I want to improve my likelihood of stealing the blinds. Open-raising in early position, I will have stronger hands on average, so I don't mind getting called; I don't want to risk a ton of money with hands like AQ just to win the blinds with so many people behind me, any of whom could wake up with a monster.

[powerpoker 0]

i generally raise 3-4 times the bb depending on both position and what my hand is and who else is at the table and how they are playing and so forth...i agree a bigger raise should be done in late position because you most likely are stealing with a below par type hand and the BB already has one bet in the pot so if you only raise it 3x he might call just to protect the BB but thats when you have to know what type of player he is (god poker is a pain in the ass)...but i think 6xBB is a little high to answer your original question about open raising

[Guest]

My raise is usually very dependant on position, and how many people have called or raised in before me. For the most part, my raises tend to be 3 to 4 times the BB, unless there a good number of people in and I'm in the late position(s) in which case I will usually base my bet on the pot size.

[SapphireTiger 0]

The point of a raise is to either bet for value or to push people out of a hand...so you shouldnt' think of it as some same number, you have to test the table out and see how they respond to your raises. If 2xbb will get people to fold when you want them to fold, or if they will still call 10xbb when you have your aces, then bet that.Another thing to keep in mind, is that in casino's, often the opening raise is much larger than what would be expected in home games.So in short, be flexible with your raises, i don't particularly like the standard raise, as you should be changing almost all aspects of your game according ot the people you're playing.

[109suited 0]

I don't know how many of you guys that are responding have actually played in a casino. I was at the Borgata in Atlantic City a couple weeks ago, and if you raised it to 6 or 8, you would get 6 callers every time. You really can't think of it in terms of normal poker. These people are there to gamble and 6 to 8 dollars is nothing to them. I was making my standard raise to either 12 straight or even 15 straight. That's the only way you get any respect.

[TheIceman05 0]

I don't know how many of you guys that are responding have actually played in a casino. I was at the Borgata in Atlantic City a couple weeks ago, and if you raised it to 6 or 8, you would get 6 callers every time. You really can't think of it in terms of normal poker. These people are there to gamble and 6 to 8 dollars is nothing to them. I was making my standard raise to either 12 straight or even 15 straight. That's the only way you get any respect.

It's not about respect; it's about the money.That being said, this is true in tons of places. At Greektown, I'll look down at AA UTG and make it 7.5x the BB w/o thinking twice. I'm not overbetting my hand, because this might draw as many as 5 callers. Also, I'm a big fan of limp-reraising in EP with very strong hands in these games. Playing after the flop can be difficult, and players are inclined to call all-ins with weak hands if they are "pot committed" (ie, have put any money in the pot). Against aggressive late-position players, I'll limp-reraise all in with a pretty wide range of hands, pretty sure that I'm going to get some at least one caller, and be ahead. I do this especially when I'm trying to build a bullyin' stack. My first buy-in, I can't flip coins soon enough. Ice

[EJ333 0]

The answer to this one as with many poker questions is "It depends".As mentioned above at low limit ($1-2) especially B&M games, you will often have many people that will call $6-$12 with anything playable. That being said, I usually open 2x-5x the big blind. You don't want to play QQ and get 4 callers, but at the same time you usually don't want to kill all the action and drag a $3 pot either. Position, chip stack, and opponent's play all come into play here. So, It depends.

[knght311 0]

I don't know how many of you guys that are responding have actually played in a casino. I was at the Borgata in Atlantic City a couple weeks ago, and if you raised it to 6 or 8, you would get 6 callers every time. You really can't think of it in terms of normal poker. These people are there to gamble and 6 to 8 dollars is nothing to them. I was making my standard raise to either 12 straight or even 15 straight. That's the only way you get any respect.

It's not about respect; it's about the money.That being said, this is true in tons of places. At Greektown, I'll look down at AA UTG and make it 7.5x the BB w/o thinking twice. I'm not overbetting my hand, because this might draw as many as 5 callers. Also, I'm a big fan of limp-reraising in EP with very strong hands in these games. Playing after the flop can be difficult, and players are inclined to call all-ins with weak hands if they are "pot committed" (ie, have put any money in the pot). Against aggressive late-position players, I'll limp-reraise all in with a pretty wide range of hands, pretty sure that I'm going to get some at least one caller, and be ahead. I do this especially when I'm trying to build a bullyin' stack. My first buy-in, I can't flip coins soon enough. Ice

I agree with these guys...in a casino you basically have to exude uber strength if you have any sort of hand or you will get plenty of callers, I would rather lose a large preflop raise to a hand that has good odds at beating me then pushing all in on the flop or turn when I am positive I am ahead just to see 4-7 turned over making 2 pair.Watch out in casinos...you have to remember, 1-2NL is Micro Limits in casinos...those guys are there to gamble!

[CobaltBlue 662]

In my run of the mill online NL cash game, I raise 3x or 4x the BB. Then I add a BB for every limper or so.

[bascomeb 0]

you should vary your raise preflop with any kind of hand. generally an opening raise should be 3 to 4x the bb but you do at some points want to throw a curveball in there and raise to only 2x or 5x the bb so they don't know what your doing. Like sometimes i'll raise 2x the bb with say a suited connector. If it's shown you could do it later on in first position with say AA or KK and sometimes it gets paid off that way.3 to 4x the bb is generally good though but remember to be creative with it

[powerpoker 0]

i had originally put 3-4x the bb...usually that is what i use online or in home games but yea in a casino ppl are there to gamble big time...i was playin at the taj 1-2 table and almost every pot preflop someone would raise it to at least 10 dollars min which is 5x BB...so yea "it depends"

[meijin 0]

I agree with bascomeb here totally...you have to vary the opening raise up at time and not do the same amounts, in the same positions with the same ranges of hands each time. If you don't think there folks that watch that and can spot it, then I assure you that you are wrong.I am a bit tired right now...but didn't Harrington have a good little section on this in Vol. #1?Later!Michael

[bascomeb 0]

yeah Harrington's book is so good. I can't wait to get end play Volume 2

[fluxer 0]

The $100 (to $200) live 1-2 NL games I've played in are more of a joke than anything like normal poker games... you know there's something wrong when you have to open for 12% of the max buy in to get "respect". On top of that, the time fees are normally killer for that limit.