Bring in raise size - 3x raise, or 3x bet

[spoody]

I usually bring in for a pot sized raise, so if blinds are 100-200, I will call the 200 and then raise another 500, so 700 total rounding up or down where necessary. I see all the time on here people advocating a 3x or 4x BB raise to open. My question is, are people talking about first calling and then a 3x raise, or are some people using the term raise somewhat incorrectly. I noticed in my last tourney that many people raised to open, but most of the time the total BET was 3x the big blind (so really a call and then only a 2x BB raise so in my example they make the total call plus raise 200+400=600. So being specific, when people say they raise 3x the BB, in a 100-200 blind situation is their total amount they are putting out - call+raise 600 or 800? To me 800 is a 3x raise. I just want to make sure I am on the same page as everyone on here.

Thx, Spoody

[Jon Matthews]

It's to 800

you see lots of raises to 600 when 800 would be too high a percentage of the stack, or they're just being scabby and the table is tight enough for it not to matter (very often)

however, if you're in LP with AK or something with 5 limpers before you, 3 x BB won't do, you need to find an amount somewhere between that and the pot, erring on the side of the pot amount

Jon

[Zag]

I think that you will hear pros say either "I opened for 4X the BB," or "I opened for a raise of 3X the BB." Of course, these two statements are the same, and it seems to be the amount that good players usually open for when stacks sizes are more than 30 BB's. Note that this is considered to be a pot-sized bet in a lot of games, because sometimes they round the SB up to a full bet for the purposes of counting the size of the pot.

As Jon points out, if there are already limpers, you need to raise more, but I don't think that was your question.