I think the other thing worth noting with your raise is that it is an overt form of aggression. When you raise anyone who has already limped will relook at their hands and anyone behind now need a lot better hand to call that raise. Obviously there are idiots who do whatever whenever but then this just means you are getting more money from them when you are favourite preflop.
Betting the flop then puts them in the same situation. This is especially so in limit when you could have any range of hands from some complete tosh to AA. The other players will generally need to feel a lot better about their holding to continue. Aggression is key in these skirmishes since having the best hand isn't the only way to win. This is something where you constantly have to judge things but its where the start of getting that aggression will come from.
Its one thing to get caught up in the maths that imply smaller pots are better but you also need to remember you should be playing the players. Whats the effect on you when a raise occurs ahead? Suddenly hands like AJo or KQo don't look so hot you might muck'em. You should remember that part of being a complete player is playing the players as well as the cards, otherwise how would you know when is good to bluff?
Also remember you want to win bigger pots when you have good hands, smaller pots when you haven't so you betting with your better hands is building that pot that you will be fav to take down. I found this stuff complicated when I started playing as to a degree it contradicts itself since surely smaller pots don't give out the pot odds for people to chase. You just have to remember that most of the time people chasing will miss and those times you will be scoping a big pot. It just might never seem that way...
I started off by reading Jones as I found that very easy to get into. I think the Miller/Sklansky stuff is good but you need to have a basic aggressive game first to fully take from it. Its the sort of book that takes several readings and each time something different will sink in. I read SS2 and that was informative though its again more about building on an existing game to my mind than building one up from the start.
Rich
p.s. After my first 5k of hands playing 0.5/1 I had an aggression factor of 0.6! I was the ultimate weak/tight but it can get better!Statistics: Posted by Ricardooon — Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:32 pm
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