Quote Originally Posted by Krapp
Personally, I think 5x is a bit much for an AK preflop raise. It almost commits you to betting something on the flop. If you dont, its probably a leak. Why is 5x preflop raise too much (to me)? Well in the current situation, assuming you bet the flop (5x+), 67% of the time youll be risking 10x chips without a pair. If the normal buy-in to the table is 100x thats about 10% of your chips. Granted if your in position (out-of-position, this is very bad), you have the extra factor of the opp folding, but I do see that as a high-risk play. Additionally, what do you do if someone does a min-raise preflop or flop? What is the normal preflop raise with other hole cards (e.g. AJs, TT, etc)? If its also 5x, thats seems very laggy

If you choose to bet a little less preflop (e.g. 2x-3x), you then allow yourself the option to check if you miss, fold to a big re-raise, call to a min-raise, etc.
in regard to games like the party $25 NL and stars .10/.25 NL, you still get some "micro-limit" mentality in that some people respond to bets/raises based on the dollar amount rather than the "times the BB" amount you've raised.

especially in the party $25 game, you'd better be betting/raising more than $2 (4xBB) if you're trying to limit the field and really don't want a lot of callers.