I play mainly $25 NL on PP or $0.25/$0.50 NL on PS. I play TA / TAP and so I don't often play junk hands and try not to play marginal/ speculative cards out of position. Kind of basic stuff, but it's working. After 7k ring hands, I am up by about 100% (not counting bonuses). I would consider my self a strong beginner.

This may seem obvious to some folks, but there are a lot of instances where I am not sure if I should bet or just limp. I have two instances recently that got me thinking seriously about when to bet and how much.

I had some folks at an another site review a number of HHs. First issue was the min bet. I found I was raising the blind amount on weaker hands or from EP. Looking back, it seems I should have limped or bet 3-4XBB with most hands. Other times, I was asked "Why did you bet there?" or "Why didn't you bet more?". I often did not have an answer. Did I want to bet for value, did I want to bet to isolate, did I want to bet to give opponenets the wrong pot-odds to draw?

With that in mind, I thought I should examine how to bet starting hands more closely.(more later on flop/trun/river bets)

Here is my question. Assuming T/A play against loose/passive tables with a mix of playing types, what starting hands should be bet/limped/ called for x bets or raised and re-raised.

I know that there is a lot of "depends" in this question. So feel free to add the caveats or used general types of hands. Most importantly, please explain why one should bet/limp/raise a particular starting hand.

If there is a giude here or elsewhere that discusses this subject, please point me to it instead.[/b]

Ok first to start, dont ever min-raise preflop. I am not quite sure if that is what you were saying when you said raise from ep. A min raise is a move I will never make preflop and I have never seen any of the really good players do it preflop. I will never raise less than 3X bb, and most times I will raise 5x or more. The min raise concept has been beat to death in another post a couple of months ago, if you want to read it, is should be available by search.

A concept I learned from playing O8 is a pushing or pulling concept, and it holds well for holdem too. Everytime you bet or call, think of what kind of hand you are playing. Do you want to push others out of the pot, or do you want to pull more players behind you in. Before you make any bet, think about this, is this a hand I want just 1 caller or do I want 4 callers so I can get odds to play my draw. Often you need to think the same way when calling a bet. If there are 2 or 3 players left to act behind you, if you are thinking about calling with a hand you want to play heads up, its a good time to raise. A call is going to give the players behind you odds to call with their draws, a raise pushes them out of the pot, especially since there is still a chance to get reraised by the original bettor.

As for preflop, the same thing is true. When you are playing a hand like AK or AQ, you dont really want to see a flop 6 way. So often I will raise with AK if there are a lot of limpers in front of me, but if I'm in LP and only 1 person has called I will often limp and keep my hand hidden, since 3 or 4 way is a safer bet that you are good when you hit TPTK. Other hands like suited connectors play much better in a multiway pot so you are getting odds to see your draw, I usually avoid heads up situations, and calling large raises with suited connectors. Small PP's are a different story, I usually limp with small PP, but if someone behind me raises I am willing to call a small or medium sized raise knowing I'm getting implied odds to flop my set, and possibly bust someones big pair when I hit my set.

Here's some pretty basic rules that will help you with your preflop raising problems.

When you raise, raise 4xBB +1BB for every limper. You can increase this if the table tends to call raises a lot. I'm usually raising 6+1 when I play $20, but if people are calling higher or lower raises all the time I adjust. Obviously I want people to call as big a raise as possible preflop while I am most likely still a favorite (due to high raising standards).

Hands to raise with in EP:
TT-AA, AK. (I tend to limp with AQ and AJs, as well as 55-99, fold the rest)

Hands to raise with in MP:
88-AA, AQ-AK (I tend to limp with 22-77, ATs and AJ)
Call a raise with AK, 88-JJ, re-raise with QQ-AA, fold the rest.

Hands to raise with in LP:
If unopened: Everything you're going to play (always give the blinds a chance to fold)
If opened: 88-AA, ATs, AJ-AK (I tend to limp 22-77, Axs and all SC's down to 54s)
Call a raise with 55-JJ, AK (possibly with SC's if you have more callers). Re-raise with QQ-AA, maybe JJ and AK.

However, NEVER call a raise that is bigger than 10% of your stack or the opponents stack (whichever is smaller) with a "speculative" hand. That pretty much means anything but QQ-AA (and here you should usually be re-raising). If the raise is less than 5% it's an easy call, if it's between 5 and 10, you're going to have to use your judgement.

Generally if the pot is raised infront of you, I'd only re-raise with QQ-AA, possibly AK, without a read on the opponent as a LAG. The QQ re-raise is actually a bit iffy but I want to get an opportunity to fold, if the opponent comes over the top, so I do it against rocks.

I can't guarantee anything but this is pretty much my "basic" preflop game. Obviously I mix it up somewhat, especially in live games where people are more observant. Not saying this is a perfect strategy or anything but I think it gives a pretty solid basis and should ensure you're not out of line or putting in money as a dog.

Hope this helps!