Raise sizing at limpers
1/2 NL. 5 limpers. I have AA in SB and raise to 15, and everyone folds. Seems like chain reaction in a way. BTN said he had 88 and didn't want to call HU. Usually, if there was a limp or 2 and I or someone raised to 12, there would be a multiway pot. I went a little bigger because there were so many limpers and OOP. Didn't want to go particularly big with this hand, but didn't want everyone to call. Seems like they mostly didn't have much limping. Also, the bet of 15 may have seemed big. Didn't want to make it 10 and play it 6-ways OOP. I had of course been one the players raising the most, but probably had a solid image.
5 Replies
After 5 limpers $15 is a bit on the small side but workable. This is pretty table dependent, how much people will limp then fold varies widely.
From the SB it's a situation where you want to aim at the upper end of the reasonable range. Once you get the first caller everybody after that is more likely to call. At a lot of tables there is no size that will average one caller, it's either most people call or nobody does. Having to play entirely OOP means that hero should be fine with everybody folding. Depending on your opponents skill level taking it down preflop may be higher EV then playing OOP against 3+ opponents.
Sometimes we raise AA and they all fold. Doesn't seem like you did anything wrong.
Maybe if you raise to $10 you end up multi-way and OOP, or maybe UTG gets cute and 3B's you, or maybe BTN flats and flops a set.
Picking up $12 and not paying rake has to be good enough sometimes.
You didn't do anything wrong. You happened to have a hand that wanted action, but the vast majority of the time that you raise that won't be the case. Like others said, you could probably raise bigger, I'd go to $25. But if your table is going to have 5 limps and then fold to an open raise, then the rest of your raising range is going to be printing money. Think about the times where you'll have AJo, or AQo, KQo, etc. These hands would be more than happy to pick up 6.5bb without paying the rake. The only hands that actually make more money by getting action, instead of folds, are AA, KK, and AKs. Even hands like QQ prefer to pick up the dead money for free, from an EV standpoint.
I'd have made it 20. At 1/2 this is going to be extremely rare. If you'd made the play with ATo and got the same result you'd have been fistpumping
You got 6bb with 0 risk. I'd not worry about it. Your sizing was fine. If that many people are limping, time to make fun of them. If they're limping and overfolding, then time to start widening your range when in position.
