My new preflop thing
 

A friend/2+2er was at my house a couple weeks and I watched him play some $25 (6 max). He'd raise a standard 3x+limpers normally, but with AA, KK, QQ, JJ, sometimes TT and AK he'd raise 8x.

I started using this strategy at my tables ($25NL and $100 NL 6 max) and it worked beautifully the first week, but my last week has been terrible. The huge preflop raise is getting more action than I'd expect, but postflop I generally win a small pot or lose a big one (AK,KK,QQ,JJ,TT have all been losers).

Is it possible people have caught on and have a big advantage by being able to put me on a specific group of hands? Is calling an 8x raise even correct with something like a small pp or suited connector knowing you're getting at best 11:1 implied with the perfect flop? I think I'm pretty good at folding these hands postflop when I'm beat, but there's some situations that I can't get away from, my average WtSD with the above hands is 27 (which is pretty standard for me) in the last week, but my W$SD is 56 (compared to 81 the previous week).

Is this strategy flawed? You got to love getting consistently called when you raise 8x preflop with these hands (only 8% of these didn't see a flop), but does it give away too much information?

I'm probably just running bad, but this is my worst 8k hand stretch in a long time, so I have to wonder if this new "strategy" is to blame. Any comments?

Re: My new preflop thing
 

In the long run, defining your hand by the size of your preflop raise will always be a bad idea. It might work at low stakes with the clueless players and large turnover there, but its a bad habit to get into (and I don't think its optimal even at microstakes).

Re: My new preflop thing
 

If an opponent catches on it makes it really rough for you to not get killed. The problem is 3BB at .25 is only .75. 75 cents just isn't enough to do anything. I found a 6BB standard raise served the purpose much better. People are still apt to call but it gets rid of more of the riff raff. Anyway, just my 2 cents

Re: My new preflop thing
 

Agreed, and especially at the 6 max tables it will be easy to pick up on. You play so many hands with someone that even not super observant players will pick up on something as obvious as raising big with premium hands. It doesn't take much observing to pick up on this.