How important is the preflop raise?

[Cleveland Guy]

Congrats on the win!

Yes it's a discussion, I guess I just meant my questions as food for thought rather than an attack on your play.

Just curious- what exactly is a shootout? and how is it different from a regular table? I never played shootouts, so I'm not sure

[runyan99]

I play $10+1 shootouts online. Everybody starts with 800 chips. It is a one-table tournament. It pays the top three players 50-30-20. The house takes just a dollar from everybody.

I started playing them because they are good practice for me, to keep me in shape for weekend home games and a weekly tournament at my local casino. As it turns out, I'm able to make a consistent profit in these game too! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Guy]

FYI - those are the SnG we all talk about.

[RFJ]

The raise is very important. It's only as important as the people you play with though. Let me explain, the raise is there to get rid of those people who will likely come in and hurt your hand when you do have the best hand. Your right that your cards are only as good as the community cards. If everyone came in on the hand I don't care if you have AA most likely you will lose. If you were to raise and it doesn't deterr the people from coming in then yes i'd say slow play it. If you slow play it you'd better know when to fold though.

[Hal 2000]

On suited connectors; I'd be wary of playing them every time. If you're in position and you have a few limpers, limp with them. If you'll be the first one in the pot, play it for a raise, and see if you can take it down with a raggedy flop.

[akira]

[ QUOTE ]
The raise is very important. It's only as important as the people you play with though. Let me explain, the raise is there to get rid of those people who will likely come in and hurt your hand when you do have the best hand. Your right that your cards are only as good as the community cards. If everyone came in on the hand I don't care if you have AA most likely you will lose. If you were to raise and it doesn't deterr the people from coming in then yes i'd say slow play it. If you slow play it you'd better know when to fold though.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about the situation where you have a good hand but the blinds are tight and don't defend too much? In this case I sometimes raise w/ any two cards and it seems to work in stealing.. At this type of table though I'm not sure whether to raise w/ my good hands (AA/KK/QQ/JJ/AK/AQ) since I'd rather extract more money than the blinds.. Is it preferable to limp in this situation where it is folded to you LP/CO?

[Ghazban]

Seeing a guy who normally steal raises from the CO just limp in sets off warning bells in every observant player's head. Almost every time you see an aggressive player open-limp from a late position, he's holding AA-QQ or AKs. If you're in the blinds when this happens, you're in a perfect position to break said player when your garbage flops two pair to his overpair. Sure, it'd be great to get all the money in preflop every time you have aces, but that's just not going to happen. Limping in with this sort of hand is just inviting somebody to bust you-- raise your usual amount and, if the blinds fold, oh well.

[MilwaukeeBull]

I like watching someone limp in and have their AA or KK cracked. They have allowed a weaker hand to see the flop without paying the price. Just don't whine about a bad beat then or the BBP will be after you.