Being a Bully

I was recently told about an interesting situation from a $1/$2 no-limit cash game that illustrates how to take advantage of weak, straightforward players who make their hand’s strength clear with their bet sizes.\nWith $300 effective stacks, a player from middle position limped, as did the cutoff. Our Hero raised to $12 from the button with J♠T♠.

While I am fine with raising this decently strong hand from the button, I think both calling and raising larger, perhaps to $16, are also reasonable options. Calling keeps the pot small, often amplifying your postflop advantage (assuming you play well) while raising larger allows you to pick up the preflop pot with no contest more often. When you make it between $8 and $12, you will find that you almost never win the pot preflop, meaning you often have to flop well to have a good shot to win.