How much do I have to raise????

[Werddown]

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.

[Pelion]

Raise as much as you have to. The more people are willing to call preflop with bad hands the easier it will be for you to make money. Think about it this way. If you hold QQ and you know that if you push, any A and any PP will call you then youd push right? Just raise how ever much it takes to cut it down to a few callers (who are calling with worse hands). Alternativly you could try counterplay and see how that compares.

[Werddown]

I've decided that I'm probably just over thinking myself.

I just need to lay down my hands to weird unorthadox raises unless I have a read that they'll do it with garbage. I've been playing in reverse and assuming the raises were donkbets until they proved me otherwise. This is not a safe way to play.

I've got to start using my Daniel Negreanu breaks when they make big calls and weird raises.

[Halv]

At 10NL my standard raise is 0.60 + 0.10 pr limper. If this doesn't give me enough action I change tables. If it gives me too much action I increase the amount.

Post flop, if I hit and they call me down I'm usually good. If they raise me I'll start worrying. Usually I'll give them credit for a good hand and wait for a better spot to get their cash.

Edit: the answer to the topic question is "enough".

[DaHorror]

This is definitely a site-dependent question as well.
A bit back (it's loosened up a bit nowadays) at UB a 40c (4x bb) raise preflop would get ya 2 preflop callers or less.

But at Pacific a $1.00 (10x bb) preflop might still end up with 3 even today!!
And who knows what crap you're up against.

As others have said, you have to experiment and figure out based on your current table how much is necessary to get things headsup or 2 callers at the most - particularly if you are out of position.

If I jack QQ up to 8x bb in middle position and get no callers - I don't at all consider this a failure.
I figure I made the right raise and nobody had crap that they wanted to invest 8x bb preflop against an aggro postflop player. Good for me I win 1.5 bb uncontested.
Eventually I will still take a nice pot.

Playing at these low limits requires a lot of adjusting your raise and bet sizes to the players involved in order to get the desired results.

Best of luck and keep at it!