I saw that there was a mini-debate in the iopq thread between rilla and muzzard about raising semi-random amounts versus following a strict formula. Since I didn't want to hijack the thread, I decided to make a new thread where people could debate this. Here are my thoughts:

I find that people play somewhat differently against me when I'm raising in semi-random amounts instead of following a 3+1 or 4+1 formula. I don't really understand it but people tend to play back at me a lot less when I do so. Maybe players get an image of me as a trickier player.

More important than this psychological effect on my opponents, I feel that raising semi-random amounts preflop helps keep me interested in the game. It makes me think about stack sizes, pot sizes, and position all in a way conducive to me extracting the most from my opponent/losing the least. Having to type in a strange amount makes me more focused on the action whereas rolling the wheel on my mouse and hitting bet somehow makes it feel okay to open a browser window to pass the boredom until the flop (this probably sounds ridiculous to some but I know others will empathize).

Either way, I think, is an effective way to make sure that you're not giving away any information to observant opponents from your preflop raise amounts.

Agreement? Dissension?