pre-flop raises amounts in nlhe

i've only been playing nlhe for about a year now, but i found a pretty good small stakes game. ($20 buy-in 25 and 50 cents blinds) my question is should i vary my pre-flop raises or always raise the same amount regardless of whether or not it's aces, big-slick or just a pair of 8's. i guess i'm just trying to guage what other people do in their small-stakes games. i'm still pretty new so try to not be too harsh. i also take position, and the amount of players in the hand when determining whether or not to make a raise in the first place. if anybody's got some advice that would be awesome.

kevin

Standard is 3-4x the BB plus one BB for each limper.

I usually like to raise roughly the same to hide my hand values, but it depends on the game. is it short handed? 10 max? is everyone so bad that people arent even going to notice you change in raise sizes? (like here i would 3x with j-10s to take a flop with lots of people who call anything, but raise 5x with AA to try to get to 3way action or HU) It all depends. If there's someone very AGG behind me i might just raise 3x figuring the re-reraise, and then push, but thats just vs. a LAG donk. whats the feel of your game?

Have one standard raise say to $1.50 then add .50 for each additional limper in the hand. This way you play 7-2 off the same as AA, and nobody can get a hand range pf.

my home game is a big mixture of loose/agressive, and passive/callers. sometimes it can be as small as six and sometimes it can get as big as 11 (yes, it's the very definition of a home game). the other factor is that there's a whole fridge full of beer, and the guys usually consume most of it. so when i raise pre-flop utg to $4 (and remember it's 25-50 cents blinds) i may get up to 4 callers. so do i bet my strong hands strong pre-flop or just keep the standard amount and hope to not get drawn out on?

[ QUOTE ]
my home game is a big mixture of loose/agressive, and passive/callers. sometimes it can be as small as six and sometimes it can get as big as 11 (yes, it's the very definition of a home game). the other factor is that there's a whole fridge full of beer, and the guys usually consume most of it. so when i raise pre-flop utg to $4 (and remember it's 25-50 cents blinds) i may get up to 4 callers. so do i bet my strong hands strong pre-flop or just keep the standard amount and hope to not get drawn out on?

[/ QUOTE ]

Raise it big. If they don't notice you raise with only big hands, then there's no reason to conceal your strenght. They probably don't care, they just want to gamble. Don't carry this habit to the casino, however. And if they ever catch on, just raise big with a boarderline hand, and at the end of the hand flip it over and say, "SEE! ill raise with crap too! you better fear me!" or something to that extent. you only gotta do it once or twice. Or, same senorio, just limp big hands 10% of the time, and say the same thing. If they only think on one level you only have to explain yourself on one.

well now here's the other problem. i usually do only raise with good starting hands. and i usually try and use position to determine what a good starting hand is. i've gotten labeled as a super tight player, but even when i raise with a mediocre hand to change it up people will still usually call me down. that's why i'm trying to figure out whether it would just be better to raise the same amount everytime or just go crazy and do random amounts.

Neither, but somewhere in the middle. If you still rake in big pots because people know what your doing, but still want to gamble anyway, then keep doing it. If you image is "too" tight, exploit that. Bluff more, then show them sometimes. Keep doing this till you get more action and then go back to raising big with your big hands. Table image in NL is HUGE. And everyone of them, ie. TAG, LAG, passive, maniac, ect, can be exploited for your benifit. Think about what the benifits and weaknesses are to your current table image, and play accordingly. Pay attention to how you image changes by doing this, and again, adjust. If you can always keep them guessing, and play a smart game, that's the recipe to success. If you have anymore questions about table image and how to expoit diffrent ones, i suggest researching it or posting a new topic on it. Good luck

[Hattifnatt]

When I raise, I almost always raise (if no-one has raised in front of me) 4bb + 1bb/limper.

[orange]

In homegames, I find it better to raise more PF. You'll get called in every spot if its 4xBB. I usually make it 5-6xBB.

Also, with these stacks, it makes playing postflop easier.