Right now I'm playing on stars at the $10 NL tables.

How much should I raise preflop in order to limit the field to only a player or two, yet still get some action with my good hands?

I realize this is table dependant, and I often have to adjust my raise sizes on the fly... but I'm looking for some general guidelines. I know it also depends on limpers and my position, but on average, say, middle position as the first one in the hand, with a hand like QQ, how much would you raise?

I started at 3x. LOL. Yeah right, everyone and their mom called me.

I bumped it to 4x, same thing.

5x Isn't much different either...

Is it really possible that I should be raising 6x+ (60+ cents into blinds that are .05 / .10) ... and if a 5x raise doesnt get it done, is a 6x raise really going to?

I'm just having a hell of a time getting them to fold hands like KQ or KJ or A3s or all kinds of other garbage that is constantly destacking me. Are these type of players going to call me preflop REGARDLESS of the size of my raise? Do I need to start being alot more careful when they play back at me after those big preflop raises? Or can I sometimes assume that they've just hit top pair?

The thing about these players, is that they're so insanely bad, that I cant tell the difference between if they are raising top or middle pair for value or if they actually hit a good hand. I also cant put them on a range because it feels like they literally call with anything.

So any advice you can give me about limiting the field preflop and recognizing when people actually hit the flop hard, would be appreciated.