[Ed Miller]

[ QUOTE ]
My stats over 40K of 1/2 are 18.11/7.72/2.65.

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Ok, time to stop being defensive and, instead, to listen. Your results are lackluster, and people are telling you why, but you aren't listening.

You don't raise enough before the flop. 7.7% is not enough. Your PFR should be at least in the double digits. Why is this important? Two reasons:

1. You get value for your hand. Does raising preflop improve your chances to win after the flop. Perhaps sometimes, but often, no, it doesn't. What it does is increase the size of the pot. When you have a hand that will win more than its share of the time, that's a moneymaker.

These raises aren't "bluffs," and they aren't designed to push people off hands. They have nothing to do with 72o in MP3. They are "you suckers limp in with trash, so my hand is likely better than yours and so I raise" raises.

2. I sense you have a postflop problem that you mentioned in passing, but actually is bigger than you think. I think you are folding the best hand after the flop too often. When you limp in too much with quality hands, you'll encourage others to raise behind you with weaker hands because they will underestimate your strength. Then, if you automatically check-fold the flop when you miss, you've unwittingly turned their bummer of a hand into a winner. I think you are losing a lot of hands that look like this:

EP limps. You limp with A8s. Guy behind you raises KTo. Folded to EP who calls, you call. Flop comes J75. You check and fold.

Raising more often preflop helps reduce the number of times you make that error (and also gets your weak-tight opponents to make that error more often to boot).

Frankly, I think you are lying to yourself when you say you based your raising decisions on what's in SSH. I think you read that chart selectively, and, perhaps even subconsciously, backed off some of the more "dangerous" raises.

Quick raising quiz. Which of these hands would you raise?

1. Two players call to you on the button with QJs.

2. One player calls to you on the button with A9o.

3. Three players call, including the small blind. You have 99 in the big blind.

4. Button limps, small blind calls, and you have A7s in the big blind.

5. One player limps to you in MP with KJo.

6. One player limps. You have 77 in the SB.

Basically, you should be raising in all these spots. I doubt you can honestly say that you would, though.