30+3 MTT

[Jason Strasser]

[ QUOTE ]
With TT or JJ, and I'm first in, I don't want ANY callers.

[/ QUOTE ]

This attitude will get you in trouble. You have to be confident enough in your post flop decisions that you do not mind a caller at all. Sure, seeing overcards is tough, but playing with a pocket pair and over cards on the board is part of poker. Don't try to make huge raises preflop to avoid playing postflop.

And you should vary raise sizes--just within sense (2-4xbb). I've seen players make gigantic raises, and I've comfortable pushed over the top with hands like QQ and JJ, because I would have these weak players dominated 90% of the time.

[bellzz]

I think you need to make a slightly larger pre-flop raise.. maybe 2.5 to 3x the BB. A 2x raise is too small.. Make it 375-450 to go.. so raise to 525 or 600. You definitely are NOT giving your hand away if you always raise 2.5-3x the BB to go.

bellzz

[mrbaseball]

I'd bet the pot on the flop. Only betting 600 may just keep the heart or straight draws hanging around. Make sure a call is wrong for them. You do want them to fold on the flop so make it hurt to call unless they really have a hand.

[swimfan]

You played it well...I may have bet slightly larger on the flop, but don't think it would make a difference. Your opponent played his hand horribly, regardless of what he had.

[Grivan]

Jason is right. It is very hard to get money in as a huge favorite before the flop. After the flop is when poker is really going to favor a better player. Good players should be trying to avoid comitting themselves to anything before the flop, because doing so takes away the opportunity for their skill to really shine. This is especially true in online tournaments where many of the posters here are FAR superior then the average player.

[jn110]

I agree with soxfan's concept here. If you "always" raise to the same amount for a given blind level, you're giving up too much of your ability to manipulate pot-size, number of opponents, etc. Of course you have to vary your play to keep observant players from figuring out what you are doing, just like any other situation.

For example, say it's early in a MTT, everyone has about 1500, and blinds are 10/20. Your "standard" raise is 3X BB. Everybody limps to you on the button and you hold AA. Do you really want to raise it to only 80? You're likely to get way too many callers. I'd be likely to make a large raise here hoping the pot ended up heads-up but being satisfied winning it right there. With TT or JJ in this same situation, I may actually make a small (2-3X BB) raise expecting to be called in multiple places, with the primary purpose of making the pot larger so that if I do flop a big set I can get an opponent tied on, and a secondary purpose of getting a free turn card on an unfavorable flop.

FWIW, given the stack and blind sizes for this hand, I would be looking to make a raise that had a decent chance of picking up the pot without committing me to the hand. Going by just the stack sizes (without info on how the table has been playing), 450 looks like a good size for this. Post-flop, I think the hand was well played.

[Saborion]

Opponent held J9o and won the hand.

Now a few questions. I usually raise 3-4 BB pre-flop, depending on my situation, and the size of the blinds. Early in the tournament I always raise 4 BB, unless I have something like AA or KK and is behind a few limpers, then I raise a lot since there are more money in the pot already.

But when I say I raise 3-4 BB, I mean a 4 BB raise with a $15 blind, is a raise to $60. Is that just a 3 BB raise? I suppose it is, since the raise is 3 BB, ie, I raise to 4 BB. So, am I one step behind in my raises the whole way, or am I right, but was thinking wrong, as in raising "x BB" instead of "to BB"?

I think one should, in most cases, raise about the same amount all the time. Naturally this is not true if you're to raise after limpers.

Can I get some comments on the stuff I talked about here?