To raise or not to raise?

In low-limit games obviously you nede to be aggressive but it gets frustrating when your raises don't push people out. Obviously you gotta raise with KK or AA but I used to raise with anything down to JJ and sometimes 10-10. Now I never raise with 10-10 and don't even raise with JJ anymore because either someone will hit an overcard or someone will draw to an overcard with AK or AQ. QQ is sometimes even a limping hand now. At which point to you cross the line from the I'm-going-to-be-aggressive attitude and the they-are-going-to-call-anyway attitude?

[LugNutz]

low limit games at online sites and B&M games are notorious for calling and chasing. There's not a whole lot you can do to change this. Alot of it has to do with players making bad calls because of "WSOP syndrome" (i.e. they see it on TV and don't know any better) or because they are just learning the game and making the mistakes that we all made or that they are out to have fun and don't really care about losing what they see as a not a lot of money.

If this gets too frustrating the only thing I can recommend is moving up in stakes to weed out those types of people. It's better for your peace of mind and although you're playing for higher stakes you won't have the table seeing 90% of the flops... you'll make more money if you play solid once you find the "right" level.


Lug

[RadioDave]

Personally I kinda like the "they're going to call anyway" style of game. I generally play tighter in that situation, and wait for premium hands. Then I'll just call the flop and turn with everyone else and if my hand still looks good on the river, then bet out. You end up playing a lot less hands, but you win more of the hands you play. If I don't think I'm close to the nuts in a loose game then I'll get out of the way ASAP... otherwise it's a night-long bad beat fest.

[cdjackson]

My normal game is .5/ 1.00 no limit. Small blinds but often the pot reaches 15 or 20 bucks (which for me and my buddies is worth fighting and folding for) In these games it is easiy to get people to drop out. Recently I played with my brother in law and he plays .10 and .20 cent blinds. At that level, everyone stays all the way because what is .50 or .75 cents.



I'll tell you what it is, it is my cash in at the end of the night because I was getting bad beats all night long.