Quote Originally Posted by Fnord
Quote Originally Posted by bigred
4x is a great raise because i feel tighties in the BB would call a 3x raise if they felt they could crack the annoying laggy player.
Why do you want them to fold? I like it when otherwise tight players who aren't used to playing weak hands call off more money out of position.
Quoted for Truth.

I always thought 3xBB was the "perfect" amount (but now I guess that's the SNG and tourney player thinking I had.) Reason being, a 3x raise is twice the current pot (BB and SB) and if you win the blinds with this raise twice, but get caught on a third time, you've broken even. Of course, this doesn't take into account being reraised from the blinds, or being called and hitting the flop, so I have no idea how +EV it is.

As with most things in poker, it depends. If there is a horrible live one at my table who loves to call raises from the blinds and see a flop because "any two can win", I want to find how much I can raise that he'll call. If he wants to call 7xBB OOP consistently for example, I'm raising that amount. Another thing I look for is people who are too loose preflop but too tight postflop. I'm usually cbetting them with position and locking it down unless the texture of the flop is terrible. (Example: J T 9 )

On the other end of the spectrum, if a weak-tight never wants to defend his blind and I'm considering a steal, I want to know what's the minimum amount I can raise to convince him to release the hand. If someone's giving up a blind for 2xBB, that's my play. (You'd be surprised at some of the guys in my regular home game; 100BB stacks and they fold to a minraise.)

But, as many of you say (and probably rightly so), the object in NLHE cash games is not to steal blinds and make all-in moves, it's a postflop game.

Argh, too complicated for me. I think the correct PFR amount is entirely situational. Can't think of anything else to type that explains it better.