Hi,

So I'm having a debate with a friend of mine...

He was playing 1/2 and picked up AA in the BB.
3 looser limpers to him and he made it $15.

I said that's excessive and that he should have only made it $10-$12.
Because with $15 he's basically broadcasting his hand and losing value.

He argued that the limpers were loose and since he was OOP, he had to make it more.

What do you think?

I would likely bump it only 4X to 5X, $8 or $10. It is likely someone will drop and even if all three call, you are still likely to be ahead on the flop. You don't want to scare out Q10, K10, and other ridiculous hands that those kinds of players call raises with. Let them make their top pair on the flop.

I guess it depends more on your flop play and turn play. Since I am able to let aces go, I prefer to risk it a little for a big payoff.

I agree with your friend. Ever since I've been raising more pre-flop w/ high pockets when there are limpers, I have been losing a lot less money with them. Even if there are callers, there are only usually one or two, which is exactly the type of situation you want. As for broadcasting hands, I think it's okay to raise like that if you make the same kind of play with AKs, KK, QQ, and maybe AK, JJ, and TT depending on your own style and the nature of the table.

I voted 7x simply because my standard is 4x+1 for every limper. However, my real answer would have to be "1bb less than it would take for whoever will call the largets bet to fold". Ie: it depends

I'd say 5x or 6x. It depends though on what size bet you think will get it heads up, whether a certain player will always see a flop with a PP, always see a flop fullstop or whether they're limping in from late position with half a hand. Plus, to further cloud my answer, what your table image is, if you've been raising a lot recently then you factor that in.

So I suppose it shouldn't always be a fixed amount.

Molina

For the most part, I totally agree with stoneburg. My standard raise is 4xBB, and then I add 1 for every limper, so with 3 limpers, I'm raising to 7BB. However, when I know the limpers are loose, I make exceptions. Example: Today I'm sitting at a table and have aces in the CO, 3 limpers to me, I check the PT data, the VP$IP's are 57, 53, 62. But then their SD% isn't too high, so I know I want to get as much money out of them now as there is no guarantee that I will get it out of them later. I raise to $3 in a NL25 game, 2 of them call. I BTP on the flop which is pretty raggy and J high. Both fold, but I made $6 off these guys rather than $3.50 if I stuck to my 7BB rule because of the inofrmation that was presented to me.

I'll usually raise to 6x, but if I take into consideration the fish factor of my opponents i may make it even double. (like if 25$ Party..)