who does this honestly?

What is the point of raising before you see your cards when playing hold'em? Is there some kind of benefit I'm not seeing because you could make some big raise and then get dealt a terrible hand. Your just throwing away money. That type of play really agitates me.

SmokeBeerPoker said:

That type of play really agitates me.

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Exactly what a play like that is intended to do.

Remember that poker is a GAME!

One of the beauties of this particular game is that it includes head games. Betting on the blinds (not to be confused with the blind bet) is psychological. If a player has been running good for the past 10 hands or so, and is seemingly on an epic rush, it behooves him to gamble a bit. In such a case the other players at the table will swerve wide to avoid becoming another victim in a possible epic run.

You might see this happen at only a few positions. UTG or very late position.

It doesn't agitate me, but I do wonder at such a players sanity.

SmokeBeerPoker said:

What is the point of raising before you see your cards when playing hold'em? Is there some kind of benefit I'm not seeing because you could make some big raise and then get dealt a terrible hand. Your just throwing away money. That type of play really agitates me.

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Sounds like the blind raises are doing exactly what they want them to do to me. Not a play I will make but I have seen pro's do the same thing ins certain situations, Gus Hanson comes to mind. The blind raise can make players very cautios or crazy since there is no way now to know if the raiser has a hand or not. Is the bet after the flop from the blind raiser a bluff or a value bet? It will put crazy pressure on you can make a person tilt.

That reminds me, when I was playing a live tournament, this one guy was hitting just about everything.. so, before the next hand was dealt, he said, "I'm going all-in next hand, no matter what I have," and then proceeded to the restroom.

Well, I got Pocket 10's, and was on the medium stack, I called, and another person called, who was the short stack. The flop was K, 10, 8 (can't remember the turn or river).

Well, the guy comes back to the restroom, and flips over his pocket K's. Great player hitting great cards the whole night.

In the casino I normally play at Limit Poker is the main game. The last hand of my day, myself and one other gentleman, play it blind and do nothing but raise until it is just him and myself in the hand. At that point we check it down. We always announce Last Hand, so the regulars know what is happening. One day, a regular player was not paying attention. He flopped the nut straight. We kept raising. All he was trying to do was call. He got frustrated and when the board paired on the river, he folded. As he folded he announced, "I fold but I want to see what you two are raising on." We looked at him an said, "So do we." He was so upset with his folding, that he begged a chance to win some of his money back. So he made us a side bet. "I will give you 10-1 odds, that neither of you can beat my cards." We both put up $100. The dealer, who had seen the players straight was to settle the beat. The dealer then told the player, "Sir, no matter what they have, they beat a folded hand."

SmokeBeerPoker said:

What is the point of raising before you see your cards when playing hold'em? Is there some kind of benefit I'm not seeing because you could make some big raise and then get dealt a terrible hand. Your just throwing away money. That type of play really agitates me.

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When they blind-raise, they effectively raise the stakes for that hand. Now you can choose to play your good hands at higher stakes and your bad hands at lower stakes(when you fold). That's a pretty good deal.
Don't get mad. Use this to your advantage. They are being fools doing that. Unless you get agitated. Then they got the advantage.

Straddling is when you double the blinds from utg so that way you can wait until after the blinds act to play, thus giving you more information, essentially making you a third blind.

This form of blind raising isn't THAT insane. Other blind raises (while blind..lol) yeah, theyr'e a bit silly, but that's the game.