[PinkSteel]

Hi Aseem, I play exclusively small stakes. The more I do, the more I agree with you as I come to appreciate the power of position.

I raise AJ from MP, to buy position, and hopefully fold out hands behind me. If I get callers behind, I go into control mode.

But that's MP. UTG, a raise is very unlikely to buy you good position through the rest of the hand. Chances are too good that you will wind up playing OOP. And with QQ (and JJ) in particular, chances are just too good that you will see an overcard on the flop, and your opponents with position will be able to toy with you. Now you're OOP in a raised pot, with overcards on the board, little hope for improvement, and you wind up either playing for your stack or giving away that preflop raise money. Yuck.

To me the big question is when you hit your set, because that's when the real money flows. Are you giving up value simply because the pot is smaller, hence harder to build, on the flop?