Badger's advice on raising preflop in O/8

[rr2000]

Was reading steve badger's article again and found this statement:

"In tight games, calling when someone limps in front of you is often the right play. In a loose game, raising is usually the correct play because you are playing a hand with way the best of it. "

My thinking has been the opposite. I almost never raise in loose games (except of course for A234, AA23s, etc. in LP).
My idea is to trap them to chase with 24, A4, 25, etc. on later streets, which some won't do if i had raised. Raising in tight games seems more natural since they need to trapped preflop.

Any comments?

[Aragorn]

I'm not familiar with Badger's article, but I am not a big fan or raising in loose games. You want to encourage loose players to see as many flops as possible, not to discourage them.

About the only hand I can thing of that might player better against fewer players is AA which might win the whole pot without improving. But it is hard to play it aggressively after the flop since there are so many hands out there that might have you beat. Personally, I like to see the flop cheaply and hope for lots of players.

[HDPM]

I think his statement makes sense in SOME cases with SOME game conditions and SOME hands. Lets say in a fairly loose game there's only one limper and you are in the CO or maybe CO+1 and have a marginal hand that plays well heads-up. If you could get heads up with a raise it's the right play. But all too often people will come in behind anyway so you are plaing a marginal hand in a raised pot, often without position. And in some ways his statement is true in tighter games, why raise a player who has a better hand? Overall though it doesn't sound like the best strategy. It may also be influenced by his focus on tournaments. I don't know. I think Zee is a lot more accurate when he says raising is done more for position than on card strength. Badger seems to be focused on the cards. I think more of Zee's opinion.

[Big Dave D]

Ray's advice is only really true for a type of game that very rarely exists...a tight, aggressive game where evryone is playing properly. Most games, certainly those online, simply don't resemble these in the slightest. The thing to focus on is not a rigid hand selection, but what do you want to achieve, based on position and table composition. If you have ABC and someone raises utg, and ure next to speak, reraising would be madness. If you have AAbaby, then 3 betting may be a great move. Alternatively, if I get the abc on the button, with plenty of callers and raisers, of course Im raising again.

If you believe that most mistakes in o8b are in hand selection, then clearly you should make the most benefit from this early stage as you can

gl

Dave

[iblucky4u2]

It is bad advise to say "only" or "never" in any poker game, especially O/8. Every game has its own flavor and makeup. What might be a great strategy in one game might be a terrible one in a game made up of different players or at a different stake. If you are winning or getting chaseed down on the river changes your table image can make a "bad" raise a good one or a good raise a bad one.

You must be flexible enought to understand this and change your game according to the environment you are playing in. Just because an "expert" - even R Z - says something, don't believe that they would follow that "rule" in every situation in every game they played in.

If you only raise with A234 or AA23 in late position in O/8 you are doing yourself a great disservice and costing yourself a ton of money. You must adjust your game according to what's going on in the game you are in, with the players your are playing against, to maximize your winning edge.

[Lunamondo]

If you are drawing to the nuts like with A2s you raise those loose limpers, while you probably won't raise a tight limper without having also high card strength, and then weather it's A2 or A3 might not matter.

If those loose limpers won't chase their nonnut lows when you raise, good for them.