sometimes i can't catch a decent starting hand to save my life (i know position is more important but still...) and i usually play with people who raise 2-3BB preflop with decent hands.

so what i tried last night was raising with semi-junk hands (K9s, Q10o, A7+o, ect...) 1BB if i wasn't in BB position when no one had raised yet. i found i had mostly callers and a few times people would reraise another BB or 2.

but when i raised 1.5BB they just called and i still got a lot of people in to give me half way decent odds. this also set me up well for when i finally got monsters like AA or AKs.

my question is would this be a useful tactic even against some better players? this is no limit and cash game(.25-.50) but i'd appreciate commentary about tournaments and limit games also thank you.

Well...

In NL i Like to raise at least 4 BB if nobody limped, and even more on limpers when I have position on them.... well... you always have position on limpers...

1st it builds pots
2nd it gives you a chances at the pot pre flop
3rd it give you a shot at the pot on every flop, even if you dont hit

And belive me if you always raise 4 to 8 BB, you will always have callers and even reraisers on you monster hands... (its kind of my problem right now)

PS.: dont listen a word of what i've just said cause I'm down 1250 BB in my last 4500 hands...

KJ

Here's some thoughts on this in a tourney:

I'd do it early on when I had a large M (ratio of my stack to the starting pot, where large is M>20) just to do some advertising and get the players to think I'm somewhat loose. If I hit a monster, then I'll play them, but mostly I'm throwing them away on the flop, maybe taking one to the turn if it's cheap.

But I'm only doing it to set up players calling me down later when I really do have hands, I'm not playing these for their value.

Late in a tourney, but still 10 handed table: I'd play all of these hands in late position (CO or button) in unopened pots for steals, and even a few more on the button (any ace, any king, Q7+, J9+) if the blinds were folding. I'm just looking to pick up the blinds without a fight, and have something of a hand with position in case one of the blinds decides they've had enough and calls.

Shorthanded, these all become raising hands (for value) when the table gets down to 5 or fewer players.