Newbie preflop questions

[Cosimo]

I've got some newbie preflop questions. Actually questions everywhere, but I'll start with preflop. Right now I'm playing $25NL, so this is definitely the kiddie pool.

Most of the books that I've seen don't get too nitty-gritty with preflop play. The situations below seem WAY more common to me than "it's folded to you in the cutoff, do you raise with KK or not?" These really seem like kinder-garten questions to me. So my questions, below, are first-grade stuff. :P

Assume stack sizes are all 100BB. For now, I'd just like some clarification on standard raise amounts, what to do when reraised, playing premiums OOP, and what to do with premiums against a raiser.

1) AKs. I raise UTG+1 to 4xBB, and get reraised to 12xBB by 14.4/3.4, two spots behind me. Folded back to me. Despite a good number of hands with this guy, I haven't seen him show anything that suggested a note, so other than his stats, I don't know much about him. What would I do with AKo, or AJs? Where's the cutoff for popping him back, calling, and folding?

2) AA in MP2, 9-handed. UTG and UTG+1 both call (both are fishy, 50/10-ish). What's a good raise? I've seen the "3.5BB + 1 per limper" quote a few times. Should all of my raising hands use that formula? How sensitive is this to position?

3) AQs in UTG+1. UTG (56/8) limps. Same deal? If I'm gonna raise, use 3.5+1x? (Note that, in this case, this would be 112c, which I ain't gonna do, but I guess the 3.5+1x just means 'pot bet', right?) I'm coming from limit, and when there's three limpers in front of me, it just seems really strange to pop it to 8xBB. I guess I need to get over this, but that's why I'm asking.

4) AKo in the BB. Three limpers (52/2 calls to river with any piece, 47/12 no other notes, and one new face). Same standard raise, even though they're all behind me?

5) QQ in the BB. UTG+1 (32/8, moderately aggro and bluffy postflop) minraises, and is called in three places (27/0, 37/11, and 55/8), then it's minraised again by the SB (75/25 over about one orbit). What's my play? I'm starting to get a sense that minraise generally means A+high, like AKo or AJs. I haven't yet taken note of who varies their raises much, which of course sounds useful... but how useful? Given that I'm asking the rest of these questions, is that where I should be putting my time right now?

6) AA in the BB. UTG (64/6) limps, folded to SB (42/12) who pops it to 4xBB. SB has been making some weird plays sometimes; pushing all-in after a minraise, some stupid post-flop bluffs, and some other stuff that I just find strange. Can't think of examples right now, but he's not what I'd call a thinking player. Pop him back? UTG hasn't been calling raises after limping, so I don't expect him to come along. How does that change things?

1) I really doubt you will regret folding AKs/AKo/AJ here. RE-raising range for the majority of players with those stats is VERY narrow, and it doesn't leave AK looking very good, suited or not, especially out of position.

2) I like keeping my PF raises the same, with the 4+1 formula. Personal preference.

3) Both raising and calling here are often acceptable, considering you are able to get away from one pair post flop in an unraised pot when likely behind if you do limp. The goal of raising is to narrow the field down to 1-2 opponents, and ideally buy the button or take the pot down PF. Your goal certainly isn't to play a big multi-way pot out of position, and if you think that will be the more likely case, limping it is fine. I will mix up my raises and limps here depending on the game. Raising here is the standard play, just realize what you are trying to accomplish by doing it.

4) I raise it. Your hand crushes them, and they will be paying you off with inferior hands more often than not. Hopefully you know when to NOT fire the continuation bet if all of them decide to tag along.

5) There is really no telling what they are minraising with. Some donks do it with AA, some do it with whatever drawing hands they are playing to juice up the pot for when they do hit, some do it with any two. I put in a legitimate raise and see how the donks react.

6) Both repopping and calling are fine. You have position, and villain is a moron that will likely hang himself a good % of the time, letting him trap himself is alright. Some players get scared when I repop them, some take offense and reraise me or push over the top with garbage. If you think villain will be cautious if you repop him but will hang himself more often than not if you don't, calling here is fine.

Hope this helps.

1. With stats like that, AK *might* be a candidate for repoping pushing, on the premise they are on QQ/JJ, but against someone like that, I feel calling and hoping to pair. If I pair the A, I probably have the best hand and would see if I could check-raise their CB. AQ becomes very questionable and would probably either take guts or a good read, since even an A might make you the second best hand. AJ I would just toss (although I wouldn't want to play it from EP anyways).

2. In this case, given how fishy they are, I would raise around 4-5xBB + 1BB and try to isolate one of them. Given their stats, you should be able to pick off one of them. Additionally, the farther forward I was MP1 versus CO, the stronger I raise to discourage additional callers.

3. I will always raise here with the same logic as before.

4. Raise. You have a strong hand and you need a clearer picture of what you are up against.

5. In this case, you *must* limit the field. If you let that many people into a pot like this, you are begging to get hurt. At the moment, the bet stands at 3BB and I would raise it to 15BBish. You have two people showing strength of some kind and then tagalongs, so you aren't likely to be left without callers, but if you flat call, it seems no board outside Q32 is something you want to see. Limit the field and get some money out of your hand.

6. If you are confident this hand will be HU, then the case can be made for smoothcalling and then repoping the flop, but if you are doubtful of that, I strongly suggest reraising to get this HU.