I play low stakes online poker (0.01/0.02) and I really don't know what to do in the following situation.
I am in late position, say the cut-off, and 3 players before me all limp in.
I have a good KQs and raise to 0.08 (I want to get the limpers out) and then all the limpers call.
We go to the flop 5 or 6 handed (button and BB called to).
Is the 4x raise bad or what do I do against limpers?
When everybody plays really loose, you should play really tight. So you should fold a lot of hands. Poker isn't about seeing flops and hitting hands. It is about winning money.
So wait for a very good hand and then raise BIG pre-flop. Try something like 15x. If they call you have a massive advantage post flop, since you have a much stronger range. You want to play against ideally one other player. A very big sizing accomplishes this. If they all fold, maybe size down a bit next time, but definitely don't go too small.
When you have well connected, but not particularly strong hands like KQs in the situation that you described, it is fine to limp along. Your hand benefits a lot from seeing a cheap flop. Against calling stations you should only blow up the pot with a premium hand.
Kind of disagree with @raymond so i'll add my own answer.
When everyone plays really loose, i find that loosening up is quite profitable (but still tighter than the rest). IE if my opening range is about 20%, but half the table is playing 80% of hands, then ill start to open up wider (maybe 35%). This gives me an opportunity to play more hands with a stronger range, and i would need to worry less about dominated hands like KJ, AT, etc.
KQs to me is definitely premium enough in position to start building a pot. You're not really here to steal blinds, you want a reasonable pot you can outplay and take down postflop. Hence i'd be raising somewhere between 7-9BB. You want to put hands that limp in tough positions, and you want junk hands to call. A hand like J9o or A7o can easily call the 4x, and easily fold the 15x.
Against multiple callers its likely profitable to never bluff. Most of the time if you hit a pair it would be top pair, and you should hit it enough to be +EV multiway. Headsup you may need to consider how your opponent tends to play, his aggression etc, before considering how to proceed.
The game you describe is common and can be found both online and live play. These are called the “wanna see a flop” games and can be quite profitable because these are easy games.
Basically your opponents need 5 cards - not 2 - to decide if they want to play or not. So they will call most PF raises. So I’m ok with your 8x and feel free to go higher than that, they will call.
On the flop, fire again without hesitation. They will tell you if they have a hand or not and you can decide what to do after that. Easy game :)
Wow, can't disagree more with the advice you're getting.
If you RAISE BIG, say 10bb into a 5bb pot, you need to win 2/3 times to make that mathematically correct. Your odds get better when the players make the mistake of calling you, but at the time of your raise you don't know that.
In a loose limpy game like that, KQs is a calling hand—if you hit it well, you can drive fast because you're likely in pole position. Same for suited Aces and middle pairs and up. The only hands I'd raise preflop are AA/AK/KK because I'm not getting out the A-high hands and protecting my QQ or JJ any. Postflop, when I know my hand, is when I seriously pot build—with multiple limpers even half-pot bets will lead to all-in stacks by the river.
Folks here are right that 0.01/0.02 is a special case. Move up to 0.02/0.05 or 0.05/0.10 before you learn bad habits you can't unlearn. Either way you'll be paying tuition at the next level up.
