Min Raising

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47goonz

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I like to like a lot of pre-flop min raises. I'm fairly loose on the hands I'll do it with. Obviously it depends on my position and the way people are playing, but a lot of times I am making the min raise with a hand like J-7 off suit (that is, if I feel comfortable I am not going to get a big re-raise). I'm also making this play with virtually any suited connectors, or pocket pairs. I often make the same play with bigger hands: say pocket 10's or pocket jacks. Usually, if I have pocket queens, kings or aces, I'm either making a considerable sized bet, or not betting at all. I have had some good success trapping with big hands because I had built a reputation of making a lot of raises. With all this being said, I'm a fairly new player, and I haven't run that well. What do you guys think of this strategy? What adjustments should be made? Thanks a bunch
 
easypickns

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A min raise shows weakness. You probably are not going to weed out many players, just build the pot. If the hand is worth raising with then I would rep strength(j7 off is marginal @ Best). I do like the fact though that you are disguising your strength by using the same raise in spite of the hand. Negraneau would rec 4x bb. On many sites a std raise is 2/3 pot.Remember, In online poker the way you use your chips is how many players read you since they do not have visual tells. Hope this helps.
 
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I like to like a lot of pre-flop min raises. I'm fairly loose on the hands I'll do it with. Obviously it depends on my position and the way people are playing, but a lot of times I am making the min raise with a hand like J-7 off suit (that is, if I feel comfortable I am not going to get a big re-raise). I'm also making this play with virtually any suited connectors, or pocket pairs. I often make the same play with bigger hands: say pocket 10's or pocket jacks. Usually, if I have pocket queens, kings or aces, I'm either making a considerable sized bet, or not betting at all. I have had some good success trapping with big hands because I had built a reputation of making a lot of raises. With all this being said, I'm a fairly new player, and I haven't run that well. What do you guys think of this strategy? What adjustments should be made? Thanks a bunch

Thanks for sharing your approach to min raises. So often when I see a player make a min raise I wonder "What was the point of that'? It almost never knocks someone off of the hand. It does succeed in building the pot, and if you hit, that's obviously a sweet payoff. If the flop is garbage, you also stand a pretty good chance at taking it down with a continuation bet. The downside is you really don't learn much about the strength of anyone else's hand, and you may end up merely building the pot for someone else.
 
Arjonius

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If you're min-raising your weak openers, you should also be min-raising the rest of your opening range. Otherwise, you give anyone who notices a very easy read to exploit.

Since you're a fairly new player, I suggest abandoning this style, at least for now. Learn to play TAG well enough to win at a decent rate. You can loosen up after you've built a solid foundation upon which to do so.
 
shanest

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Yea like Arjonius has said you've gotta be consistent with the hands are they'll be able to tell strength from ur big hands.
 
dirtyoldog

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I don't know why you would want to play j7 off nevermind raise it unless your allergic to chips good luck
 
EvertonGirl

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I used to min-raise no matter what my hands are so no-one would get a read on what I was holding... The only problem with this is when you have AA and you are min-raising, you will be getting too many callers, AA/KK diminishes when in a multi way pot so you will often find that your best hand pre will be cracked and you would only have yourself to blame.

Like Arjon said start to play a TAG style till you feel comfortable enough to loosen up your range as for raising pre keep to the standard 2.5xbb or 3xbb

GL @ the tables :)
 
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47goonz

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Thanks for the replies, that was all pretty helpful
 
Jacki Burkhart

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you'll see good players and gambly players min raise a lot. (and weak players who don't know better)

why do this?

as mentioned previously, it builds a pot. (virtually guarantees a call from the BB)

When you're a good player you may WANT to build a pot because you think you can take it away later by outplaying your opponents. When you're a gambler you may want to build a big pot so that you can flop a draw and gamble for stacks.

if you are a new player, you don't want to be building big pots with marginal hands...that is a recipe for disaster that will leave you with many tough post flop decisions to make. you'll often be pot committed with a hand like top pair weak kicker and end up losing your whole stack when you shouldn't have even been in the hand to begin with.
 
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WizardRubic

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I do minraises from late position for a different reason.

My goal isn't to build the pot or to establish an image.
My goal is to determine the minimum amount needed to push out the Big blind and small blind preflop. If you can steal with a min raise, why would you raise bigger? If they start adjusting, then you gotta adjust to counteract whatever they're doing.

If they're flat calling every orbit, then you're gonna have to tighten up your range and bet bigger. If they're reraising you after a few orbits constantly when you minbet, then start tightening up. Depending on how exploitable their reraising size is, you may either want to continue min betting or betting larger.

I'm saying minraise till they adjust. Same as you'd do in a HUSnG match.

As for your big hands not being disguised... When you play TAG and you play with vpip of 15% or something like that, your range isn't exactly disguised there either :p

And yes, if you aren't completely confident in your play, I agree with the people above :) It will eventually land you in a marginal spot.
 
steveiam

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The problem with min raising especially in early position is that it prices everybody else in to call. I prefer 3x raise early on in the game and move down to 2.5x in middle stages and then down to 2x in late stages when blinds are big relative to the stacks.
 
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I rarely min. raise. It really shows weakness in most of the cases and you can tell that about your opponents. Also it varies on the blinds. If blinds are 10-20/15-30 what would a min. raise do? Also I dont like raising at all with weak hands, unless im trying to steal the pot. Now PP and suited connectors are a good raising hands, but J7o not that much. When I raise with a hand and look forward to stealing I need to know that this hand has atleast some value postflop if it comes to there, Im doing my best to crush him pre-flop. Im stealing with Ax Kx or something to make sure I atleast got a high card. C-bets to me means that in a bad pot ( Considering my opponent is raising me pre-flop, presenting a big hand ) and the flop is 2 5 7o and he is still raising, Im immidiately putting him on Overpairs. Plus, with this strategy of you, you will be losing way too many chips on weak hands more often to people that play tight and have better hands than you do.
And this table image is not always possible to create, since you will be moved a lot, so you either need to play tournaments with 10-15 blinds or the final tables. Raising with marginal hands someone who doesnt recognize your play can put you into trouble.
 
Arjonius

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Min-opening only shows weakness if your bet sizing is linked to the strength of your hand; i.e. if you min-open with a weaker range than you have when you open for more. So, if you min-open your entire range, it doesn't give a sizing tell as to your strength.

There' still a problem though, at least for most players. When you min-open, you're more likely to get called because it costs less, including being more likely to get multiple callers. As a result, you'll find yourself in more marginal positions. If you have a meaningful skill advantage in your post-flop game, that's okay. But not all that many do.
 
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