Is this wise?

[jmgambler]

Dear All,

I have posted here re: Why raise AK,AQ pre-flop.... now as an addition to this question.

I play $2/$4 PP with success, I am probably too loose and play things like K10o if I am late position with no raises and 6 people have folded before me and I am a sucker for suited connectors regardless of size.
However I read games pretty well and feel I bluff well (probably why I am winning- makes up for my leakages) anyway enough confessing.

My question is:

Should you raise with AK,AQ,AJ in LP or on the blinds?

The reason I ask is I have good success with these types of hand early position but when you have limpers who have already bet $2, I have yet to see a player fold to the additional $2 raise and with say 7 or 8 players in the hand J8,Q9 etc seems to win whereas if I was EP then these hands probably would not have called, I mean calling an extra $2 when you have committed $2 already is easier than calling $4 when you can walk away.

I think I know the answer here, but humor me /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

any thoughts?

Regards David

[SheridanCat]

When you have AK/AQ and you can bring J8 along for another bet, you want that. No, you're raise here is not for knocking people out, it's for making a big pot when you have the best hand or the potential to improve to the best hand.

You can try to knock people out later depending on how the hand progresses.

Regards,

T

[Pov]

If there are 7-8 players in the hand on average and you are suited you would raise these every time from any position. Not suited in LP I would probably still raise with AK and AQ, but only maybe with AJ. With this many players you're going to lose a lot, but you don't mind because the pot already has 16 SB's in it and you have a big hand that will win way more than 1/8th of the time.

From the blinds I really have the same question. If you can raise your AK out of the big blind and still check-raise the flop when you hit an ace (which it sounds like you may be able to with players this poor) then I think you're probably forced to go ahead and raise. Against better players I would lean towards trapping for the c/r.

That's my .02 anyway. I'm a winning player at the same limits you are, but still very short on experience so someone else here may have a better analysis than I. I continually pick up good ideas and concepts from this site.