What a raise size does

Size is not decoration. It decides what your opponent is forced to do.

Open small and you risk little, but they come along cheaply. Open large and they fold more, but the miss costs you more.

Start from: shallower means smaller, out of position means larger.

• position

  Where you sit relative to the action. Acting later means deciding with more information, which is worth more than most cards.

• effective stack

  The smaller of the two stacks involved. That is the most either player can actually lose, so it is the number that matters.

25 hands or more, with an optimal rate of 60%