What you read about playing poker in books is not necessarily applicable to Replay Poker. For example the most popular play in RP tournaments is to limp in with any hand from any position and then call pretty much any raise. The result of this is that you have large pots with several participants, which goes a long way to negating the advantage of premium starting hands.
I rarely limp into a hand, unless perhaps I am on the button and there are already a couple of limpers giving me the odds to play a speculative hand like A7o, or in the SB, if I have a hand with which I would probably otherwise open, or at least a hand that can do well 1:1 if it is folded to me, like any Ace or pocket pair.
When you make an opening raise, you need to have a plan and need to know what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to win the blinds preflop, or trying to steal the button with the intention of stealing the pot with a continuation bet, or to build up a big pot because you have a hand that has potential to make a monster on a later street? For example many people on RP like to play suited aces even though the odds of flopping a flush are very slight.
So if you raise with a mediocre holding like KQ, you need to know in advance whether you are going to call if reraised or fold (your decision may be affected by relative stack sizes). Since people on RP tend not to reraise very much, when they do it often means that they have AA, KK, QQ, or AK or AQ, none of which you really want to play against with KQ. However, if you can see a flop for a reasonable price KQ has potential to make the nuts on a later street, although that super aggressive reraiser probably isn’t going to let you see a free card on the turn or river. By putting in a standard raise with KQ from early position, you will also discourage players in later positions from limping in, even though if they limp in first, they may call your bet.
If you raise preflop with AA or KK what are you trying to achieve? Presumably you want to have one caller, or maybe two, but no more, because if you just take down the blinds unopposed, then you are not profiting very much.
Book poker is often about playing a hand against one opponent, and is quite different from playing in pots with three, four, or five players seeing the flop.
Position is super important, because if you raise preflop with a so-so hand like QT and are called in the BB, you often have the chance to take down the pot with a continuation bet even if you miss the flop.
To call preflop raises, you need to be stronger, especially if you are calling from out of position in the blinds, because now you have no chance of taking down the pot preflop and it will be hard to win the pot unless the flop hits you.
If you make a lot of raises from early position, then when you do pick up premium starting cards, your hand is much better disguised and you have the potential to win huge pots when your opponent completely dismisses the possibility that you have flopped a set of Aces or Kings when you act like you are scared of the ace or king.
In RP you always have to look at your odds. If you are in the SB and three players limp in, then, assuming that the BB is likely to check, you will be getting 9 to 1 on your money and can call with practically any two cards.
If you have a hand like KQ in early position, you might as well raise if you expect to get multiple callers, because while you may have to throw away your hand when an opponent reraises or shows aggression on the flop, or if an ace comes on the flop, on the occasions when the flop hits you hard, there will already be a big pot and when there are opponents who are willing to chase weak draws, the odds move in your favor and you can win huge pots.
To me there is absolutely no point in limping into pots, because that way you obtain no information from opponents about how much they like their hands, and you are positively inviting the blinds to enter the pot with random hands.
