Min Raising

Why not min raise? Ive heard a lot that you should never min raise... but why?

This thread should help: Stop minraising

thank you

Cause Dorkus said not to.

AG, told me god kills a puppy everytime you min raise. No way I will be responsible for that.

That was a very informative thread. I was wondering if you adjust the play for normal freerolls. When I am in a buy in tourney I play (or atleast try to play) solid poker. I try not to limp, raise 3x blind but early in a freeroll I found people were insta calling me with any 2 cards in hope of getting lucky. This lotto poker style really messes with your ability to put your opponent on a hand. How do you counter it?

you dont... trust me, ive been trying for a year

I've become a fan of minraising on the full tilt freerolls because a lot of people
are sitting out and this way you steal their blinds

It's true. Also, min-REraising makes baby Jesus cry.

First off I believe there is definitely a place for min-raising in a tourney as stacks get small in relation to blinds and any bigger raise would commit you too much. Also, I have actually heard pros (Ed Miller was one) advocate min-raising even in cash games. It's just that most of the time people do it they have no idea why they're doing it. Obviously it's a bad play most of the time.

Although I did hear, I think from BuckLox, that the way to determine who's going to win the hand is who wins the min-raise war, ie if it goes min bet, min-raise, min-raise, min-raise, min-raise, call, the last person to min-raise will most likely win the pot a good 90% of the time just because they won the psychological battle.

(last part obviously a joke, although it was in that video lol, first paragraph serious though)

I just did a min raise from UTG (A5s) in a cash game and ended up with an A high flush on the turn and a pot that was 7x the BB. Is the advice in this thread only for tourney play?

There is a good teacher on this site....code name DorkusMalorkus, It's 100$ a lesson 75$ to him and 25$ to me for the source that is so great...

min-raising A5s from UTG in general is not a good play. And are you telling me that you only got an extra 1.5 big blinds after the preflop action with the nut flush (you raise to 2, he calls, that's 4 in the pot and you only won a pot that was 7)?

MINRAISING = -EV in every non fixed limit game! You are getting minimal value out of your hands by doing it. The only idiots who do it do not know how to bet their hands to get action/do not think about the game/do not have any clue how to put other people on a specific hand range...it's dumb in every aspect and people that do it should quit playing poker.

Solution for all min raisers!

Play limit!

Yeah, in a freeroll you get people sitting out so if you are in the SB and no ones in the pot ahead of you and you KNOW the guy next to you is sitting out, then min raise. Other than that never do it. I see this the most on Carbon poker where they have a couple 6 handed freerolls.

Min raising is stubid in my opinion. Lets say the pot is like 500 and u bet min for 30. ofc ure opponents will call with anything lol. And when u bet like 240 on turn ure opponent might caught something or have greater draws than in flop.

this was an interesting insight for me,because i generally use minraise often in mtt's....the 'stop minraising' thread changed my perspective a whole lot....thanks for bringing this up....

No the total pot ended up being 14

People who min raise should quit playing poker? If you know that your opponent will fold to you on a min raise why wouldnt you do it?

A min raise will not push out suited connectors that people so often lose to on the river and then complain. Raise 3x the big blind at least early in a tournament. When the blinds get big, 2.5x may do

I have to read through all of the info in the thread that was linked early on in this thread. There seems to be a lot of good info there and here.

I have a second question. How do you counter a min raise. Should your play against it be normal play? If someone is making a min raise should we assume they are bad players? Can we take advantage of that somehow?

I just saw a person min raise Cash game NLHE micro and get reraised by 6 and then called all in with a stack three times the size of the person who re raised their min bet. Do we fold against the all in? With which hands can we call it?

I dont know if a person will call min raise they will call 3x BB early in a tourney. Now if it is later and the raise is 600 vs 400 maybe.

I don't particularly like the min-raise, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is never a good idea. It all depends on the person you are playing. With so many people against the min-raise, you could take advantage of it depending on the type of game you are playing.
That being said, unless you have the absolute nuts I would not min raise in a freeroll. But if you do, it could be a pot sweetener for you

why cant you min raise?? i think its a good play at right times to pull off a bluff... Played right, people could think you're min raising begging for a call, putting you on a great hand... if the bluff doesnt work and the guy moves over the top, its an easy laydown as you havent committed a hefty amount of chips... it all depends on situation.. hard to say yes or no without knowing the circumstances.

I think min raise after the flop is stupid, and I used to think pre flop, but I watched this guy min raise pre flop every hand he played, if it was re raised he didn't call, but most of the time he just got a lot of callers, then after the flop he would bet half the pot, every time same scenario if he was raised all in he would fold , however he never changed his play so when he had the nutzs or a good hand he got paid off. The key for him was he did it with just the hands he wanted to play, never changed his strategy, was able to fold, able to win with his actual hands, and after the table switch I saw him again at the last three tables of the ub free roll. I ended up leaving earlier then he did, but it was definately an interesting strategy.

I think that is two strategies working together. One min raising everytime you play and the other playing post and pre flop the same despite the strength of his hand. You should try and stay consistant when you play so people can not predict what you have but why not try and the limit the field when you play a hand. Why not come in for 3x blind raise everytime you play and get a couple of people out of pot right there? That way you are less vulnerable post flop.

I am not saying you should min raise pre-flop, but i think that it does have its uses during the course of the game during a hand. But when it comes to pre i have to agree with you completely. Way too many callers with a weak raise like that. It could pay off if you hit something big, but you are asking to be drawn out on

I followed this to the letter just now in a 9 player $1 Sng and came in 2nd place. Any hand I was in on, including JJ and QQ 1 time each, I did a min raise before the flop and after the flop I would either check, 1/2 pot or full pot depending on how it turned out for me. I also folded pre flop if anyone came too far over the top. Did this for any hand that I would have normally 3x raised or better on.

Will try it again at dollar level to see if this holds up again.

Not thinking it would play well even at low buy in SnGs though

Wow! Boy do I feel dumb. I guess I've minimum raised on many ocassion, but now I'm going to rethink my play That was some great insight into why a stronger bet has advantages, especially in a cash game. Thanks for the advice.

There is no coherent strategy guide for freerolls because there is no coherence in freerolls. With half the folks forgetting they signed up, and half the rest thinking it is 'Spades', and another half thinking it is 'Hearts', and still a few more thinking it is Pinochle , your best bet may be to sit out the first half hour.

Tried this again at $1 level. Came in 5th place. Going for it 1 more time.

Did the min raise pre flop anytime I was entering a pot thing again and I finished 3rd. So that is two times in the money 2nd and 3rd and one time I came in 5th.

This may actually not be a bad strategy for micro SnG games and certainly seems to change the idea that min raising should never be done.

1) Pre flop min raise all levels. If re-raised examine hand as usual to see if the re-raise call is worth it
2) After flop play as normal but playing 1/2 pot raises for a decent part of the flop and full sixe pot bet for all strong flops
3) After that it played out like other normal hands to me.

I noticied that a min raise in most cases was almost like liming and with a stronger hand a way to get more money in the pot.

I doubt anyone will write a book on the success of this and of course I would love to hear how it turns out in a $10 (or higher) Single Table SnG

heythanks for the response, i want to try it but i need to practice more self control, i thought it was pretty interesting strategy though and i am glad that this post was brought up because I never would have thought about posting about it other wise!

I am not supporting this strategy but if you raise stronger with better hands than you do weaker ones, smart opponents will pick up on this. You should not be basing raises or bets soley on the strength of your hands, this is one of the few tells a player can have online.

At the mircos this will work becuase so few of the players actually pay attention. As you get higher though this strategy will get exposed especially #2

As I stated I think it is something that will certainly work in smaller buy in games. I certainly feel that I had opponents folding when the min raise came in and when they did call if the flop didnt come my way it was a lot easier to get away from the hand. However if you arent playing this way all game then it will be an easy read when you do it just like anything else.

Try it on a 10K play chip game and see how it goes. I think the competition in 2000 and 10K play money can be similar to $1 anyway.