[La Brujita]

Hi there,

Just my thoughts and please note some may be incorrect as I am not a pot limit guru.

1. I am not sure I like the "if I was in a hand I was raising the pot" early when imo if others let you get away with it you should be limping in with a fair number of hands in position trying to hit a good flop. I am talking about the small pair/suited connector type hands with big implied odds given stack/blinds sizes. No reason to raise imo with a hand like 55 after four limpers but even less reason to fold.

I think rather than say a pot sized bet is the best you need to look at the reasons behind a raise and then look at how effective the raise is in achieving your goals. Basically there are two main goals:

1. build a pot
2. thin the field

My feeling is as the blinds get big your primary objective is to win the blinds without confrontation with as little risk to your stack as possible. If 2.4xbb achieves this cool, if it takes 3xbb cool.

Early when the blinds are small frankly I don't think people are as sensitive to the .3 difference. You also want to keep in mind you want to be consistent to the extent possible and to the extent people are noticing your actions.

I will let others discuss pot building if they are so inclined because it is frankly a place I am trying to improve.

2. Basically I think you should try to play +ev poker. Please note there are many strategy threads on this forum re $11 rebuy at Stars. Basically poker is a reactive game so if people are playing too many hands and going to far that should change the amount of hands you play and the number of hands you value bet. Again limping in position with good implied odds is pretty powerful. I guess my point is as follows: if you hold AT on a A-2-7-J board against one opponent there is no absolute rule as to whether to bet the river or not. But factors to consider include whether a caller will call with any middle pair, any ace etc. You also need to consider the range of hands he started with but I guess my point is if they will call with weak hands punish them. The corollary is some calls that might seem unprofitable might become profitable due to implied odds and your opponents' mistakes. The key seems to be to correctly exploit those mistakes.

Generally you bluff less when people call loosely. This is basically the flip side to value bet more.

3. No need to throw people off by being a jerk. Just play your game and you will win. I know at least one poster will smile at my posting this since I have been known to pull my Hellmuth imitation. (BTW and off topic, Doc if you are reading I read Zen and the Art of Poker yesterday). Thanks for the rec.