Reasons to Raise

Have you ever sit down at a tournament game, first hand, you look down at your mediocre hand. Everyone calls down to you. You decide "Why not just see the flop". So you call. Now everyone behind you just calls/folds. There is atleast half or more people at the table involved in the hand. The small blind calls. Now you notice the big blind is taking alittle more time. Then he announces, "RAISE".
Then you look down to see he raises the minimum.

What is the point of this? He will most likely not make anyone fold in the beginning of a tourney when the blinds are so low. The minmum raise might infact cause a reraise.

Is this a mistake? Maybe... maybe not. It depends what he thought he could accomplish. If he has a "Monster" hand the minimum bet could have been used to spawn a rereaise. But I would think that this is a bit too fancy for the beginning of the tourney. Probably the best bet would be to raise it 4xthe big blind.

Or he could be hoping that with more money in the pot it may cause someone to chase... all the while he holds the advantage.

Now if he holds mediocre or trash cards... this is almost always a mistake. The raise will take money from him to see a flop that will most likely not hit him. And he might not even get to see the flop because someone my reraise that was slowplaying those pocket rockets.

So why do we raise? why do we call? why do we fold? why do we check?

-You should call when you will most likely need extensive help from the flop. But if you hit a monster, you can drag in lots action for your chips.

-You should raise to limit the field of play. This can also be used to pinpoint someone who is way ahead of you... or help show someone that is playing wildly/ on tilt. This can also be used to make it appear you are way ahead of everyone else if you have a read.

-You should check for deceptive purposes/when you don't want to start the action.

-You should fold if your hand doesn't meet any of the other qualifications or you feel in anyway unsure about calling.


- Always mix it up once in awhile. I like to play a hand i wouldn't normally in a way I would never play it... maybe once in an hour... maybe once in a session. But always keep 'em guessing.

if i watch poker on the tv, ive noticed the pros tend to raise 3 times the big blind. usually the best time to raise is when a few people call and ur one of the last to act. the minimise raise doesnt tend to stop people calling but raising 3 or 4 times the big blind will, which will give u better odds when some of the callers drop out. as previous post stated u need to rasie with different hands. good ones like big pairs AK AQ etc, and also small pairs and suited smaller cards 7c 8c, to keep em guessing.




katy


katy

I have had the call button removed from my computer, if its not good enough to raise, its not good enough to play.

Thats a good tight strategy that my dad taught me :P Basicly only allows you to play hands that you are confident about. Which is a plus in a loose game.

Yeah, Iv'e heard that said before. Personally I like to get in cheap with drawing hands and small pairs. I think I'll keep my call button.

sometimes when people autoclick the call button it can be a tell. if they call straight away they tend to have a good hand. also the check button works in the same way. if they check straight away they tend to have nothing. though a small raise should let u know either way.




katy

That guy making the min raise is definitely looking for reraise and maybe all in. I've seen players do this a lot in tourneys and win, making their stacks twice as big, sometimes three times as big as anyones at the beginning of the game. It's his strategy but more often then not I see these players out midway or three quarters of the way into the tourney.

in tournaments i raise sometimes in late positio; if a number of people limp in before me and i have a decent hand. (maybe mid-pockects or mid/high suited connectors) i might raise a bit on the button or the BB to see where everyone is at. ill watch to see which limpers fold and who simply calls. that gives me an idea of what type of hand they might have. a hand worth a limp and a raise, but no reraise tells me they might playing small pockets or maybe a high card and mid kicker (K/9). if someone reraises over me, its an easy fold for me. the way i see it is i might have lost a few chips, but i have a whole round of hands to play with before i really have to put anything (blinds) so i have a chance to get back the few i lost.

if i have a pretty decent read on the players, i like to raise late not only to kick out players looking to get in cheap with small hands, but also to see what other players do. i might raise with a not so great hand to see where other players are and then try to out play the player, rather than their cards.

Against good players yes grumble, but against players who will move all in with top pair, its good to see a number of cheap flops so you can bust someone for very little risk... The less money that is in before the flop, the more of an advantage the more skilled player will have.

Example: If both players put in half their stacks preflop, if the worse player outflops the good player he will bust him. However if they only put in 1/100th of the good player can wait for the nuts to go all in.