Pre-flop raising amounts for 10$ NL .05/.10 blinds

I'm currently playing in the $10 NL Paradise Poker rooms because my bankroll is fairly small at this time. I typically raise by about the same amount whenever I raise pre-flop...about 5x the BB. I don't like to vary my raise amount with AA vs. AQ or whatever....I just vary WHEN I'll raise with a certain hand or not based on it's strength. This way, I never tip off my opponents to my hand strength and they think twice about calling/re-raising. However, I recently got burned on a hand that was a bit of an eye-opener.....

I'm dealt AQo in late position. I raise $.50, or 5x BB. I get about 3 callers.

Flop comes:

2 rag Q with a flush draw on board.

I bet big, and get a couple callers (no suprise with the flush draw out there)

Rag comes on the turn, and again I bet big. 2 callers again.

A on the river, and no flush draw made! Sweet! I make a decent sized but callable value bet, and get reraised all-in?!?. There's so much in the pot that I call, thinking that it doesn't make sense that someone called my decent sized raise with a rag pocket pair and hit trips.

I was wrong. I lose to a set of ducks.

I'm not normally a sore loser, but I make an offhand comment that I'm suprised that someone would call a preflop raise with 22...to which I get the reply:

"It was only 50 cents."

And I'm thinking to myself "That's 5 times the big blind! Show some respect for a raise like that!" But what I'm forgeting is that even though the blinds might only be 10 cents for the big blind....we have 10 dollar stacks, which gives him huge implied odds for hitting his trips. He was right to make his pre-flop call....and I now feel like a total idiot for publically questioning his play :oops: .

So my question is....what would be a decent sized pre-flop raise amount for the room I'm playing in (10$ .05/.10) if I only want one standard raise amount? Or should I really strongly consider mixing up my pre-flop raise amounts (although I do know that there are some strong players who believe just like me that keeping it consistant denies your opponents info).

Honestly, I believe this is just a bad luck play for you. Your raise was a reasonable amount that most typical players would respest. Although, I will call up to a $2 bet with pocket pairs simply because the profit I can make on them 1/8 times I make a set, is SO worth it. In this case you just got beat plain and simple, nothing wrong with your betting. Although if you want to make them pay more, just bet $1.00-$1.50 with AQ.. But I'm saying, lots of players, myself included, call up to $2.00 with pocket pairs! I hope my advice helped somewhat, feel free to criticize.

I've been burned on similar situations a number of times. After he called your bet on the flop, I would have been worried that maybe he has a flush draw, maybe a queen, or maybe even trips. After calling your bet after the turn however, I would have been real worried that he had trips or AQ, like you. Hard to not bet when the A came up on the river though, but that raise to put you all-in, you had to figure he had trips or got the two pair aces and queens with you. Some people play pocket pairs for almost any amount, that's why I keep notes on people like that. I've looked at my notes on someone I haven't played against in a while and folded a hand because of what I wrote, and in the end it was the correct decision. But basically you had bad luck on that, but, it was only 50 cents, which may have been 1/20th of your $10 buy-in, but in real life, it's nothing.

A long time ago, I folded pocket 2s pre-flop because the bet was too big for my comfort (I think it was about equivelant to 50 cents in a $10 room.) I would have quaded them on the turn had I stayed in. For weeks after that I played ANY poket pair to the flop, just in case. You may have run into someone like that.

The main thing you have to keep in mind is there are some things you can't buy, especially in low stakes games. I read a book just on low stakes, no limit holdem. It was very good. One of the best pieces of advice it gave is that you have to accept that people will do stupid things chasing after cards and making bad calls, because, "It's only $xx."

Something else the book said, and I've noticed to be true. It is much more difficult to shake someone with a spade flush draw than any other suit. I don't know why.

BTW, I've been hnging around the $10 no limit tables at Paradise, I hope to see you there.

One thing to consider is your stack size and your opponent's stack size. Your opponent is playing the baby PP in hopes of taking your stack or doubling his stack if it's smaller than yours. If your PFR is less than 1/8 of the smaller of your two stacks or if it's a multipot, he might figure it's worth it. Technically, that's not correct, since he probably wouldn't take your stack unless you both hit the flop, which won't always happen. But if your goal with your PFR is to fold out baby PP, you need to consider this result and adjust accordingly the next time you play this opponent.

I personally think calling 5xBB with 22 is a bad call unless he can count on you to push every time with top pair.

Consider that most of times he's paying you when he plays baby PP (without your knowing it), and you're not pushing your stack every time he hits, and you might feel better about it.