Min Raise?

[Tuan]

I have seen a lot of Min Raises in online tournament? Is this a trend because live tournament they usually raise 3x or 3.5x. I see the value of min raise when the pay jump is bigger, and there are many short stacks; but I do not understand early tournament MIN Raise?

Can someone explain why we MIN raise? and What are the benefits of raising MIN?

Thanks
Tuan

 

[RocwX]

Min raising in the beggining of a tournament is not a big enough bet to keep weaker hands away from the flop. You'll see a lot of people calling a min raise and each additional call makes the pot even more desirable, giving better odds to calling.

If you're playing a freeroll, there will be lots of unexperienced players who will limp and min raise. If you want to keep them away from the flop, you have to play tighter than usual and also more aggressive. 3-bet often and bigger than usual, go all in with premium hands preflop.

In any case, there are some situations where you can min raise and it can very profitable. I even started a thread in the Tournaments section about min raising preflop. When the tournament is in its late stages and the blinds are so big that most people have between 10 and 30 BBs, a min raise will be enough to make most players fold and even steal the blinds if they are playing very tight and didn't get face cards. Doing that, you get the benefits of a standard 2.5 BB raise preflop but paying a cheaper price.

 

[NHequalsFU]

Min raising is usually done after the antes come into play. I would personally look to go from 2.0-2.5x raises but sometimes if I'm playing alot of tables I just min raise because it's easier.

Early in the tournament 3x or even 4x is fine to weed out the riff-raff like previously stated.

Online tournaments play much different than live tournaments.

 

[Tuan]

Very nice, I understand now. Some players are new to the game and they see the pros MIN raise so they decide to do it as well. I crack their AA and KK sometimes; and I can hear their mumbling about the bad bead and how I play my 56o like a donky; but the pot odd is always in my favor to crack those big pairs.

 

[fa1920]

I do not know what types of tournaments you will play, but opening 3,5bb or more is very good to get value but only in freerolls, in common tournaments you will only be paid with better hands (Maybe some fish will match you too)

 

[duson]

I have started to see alot of people limp or min-raise with strong hands like AA, KK, QQ if they feel like the table will fold to a 3x-4x. But yeah if you have a strong hand and aren't trying to trap you should always at least 2x the BB.

 

[tauri103]

Although this way of playing is often that of beginners, it is most often not recommended, except in some very specific cases.

The beginning player and the passive wide player often practice the Mini-Raise, at the tables of Cash Game, at the beginning of position and end of position. This way of doing things is counter-productive because if you want to inflate the pot it is better to make a bigger boost and if you want to prevent other players from entering the game with marginal hands, this mini raise will not be enough, in most cases.

In tournaments with Antes, when the average height of the mats is limited and represents a number of Blinds neither too weak nor too high, the revival in Mini-Raise is an acceptable option, but always at the end of the in a pot not revived .

 

[bstest]

I don't follow common rules any more. My bad. But with a premium hand under the gun, I often throw a min raise out. My thought is everyone will think I have mid pair and am just trying to shrink the table. Will probably get a raise to push me out then I go over the top.

 

[roger perkins]

ok first of all you should raise for a reason. I dont see many reasons to min raise preflop. if you already had a couple of calls then they will not run away and maybe one will now reraise you. If that is what you wanted ok but often i see min raise call call then an all in and the min raise folds. if you are in the SB and have AA KK and all have folded i would maybe min raise if i thought the BB would think im trying to steal and reraise me so i could then shove. But i dont want to let the BB in and crush my big hand because i let him call a min raise. I would rather raise 3 to 4x and take the small win than lose a lot to a badbeat or misplayed AA KK.

 

[neverbluff]

From what I've noticed, people tend to min raise with bottom pairs or flush draws or with really strong hands like a full house. Usually it's the weaker hands. A lot of the time your opponent with do these min raises in the exact same way and they aren't balanced. Check/raises will get a fold most of the time, and these types of players will never reraise you unless you are beaten so you can safely fold.

 

[dbchristy]

I enjoyed reading everyones respone to the min raise. I min raise myself when blinds are bigger, and im wanting call. not so much earlier in the game

 

[Nathan Smith]

Min Raises are usually a bad idea. They are not big enough to use when you are bluffing to achieve folds and they give your opponents great odds to call and draw when you have value. There are obviously a few very limited circumstances when it is OK and when you are exploiting bad opponents.

 

[Martin Carreira]

I think they are players who are afraid of their hand, they are not confident and they play it in a fearful way thinking that they will lose it. That's why they prefer to go up a little to see what the rest of the players do, and in case the flop brings higher cards than their pair, fold and not lose many chips. I do not consider it a way to appropriate

 

[kdawg71]

I am a firm believer that if you have a premium hand that you need to make people pay to see the flop no matter what part of the tournament you are playing. When you have a premium hand you need to get your as much money in the pot as possible.

 

[sunburnking]

I haven't played online poker since 2014.....all i see on ACR is min raise in every tournament......is the new norm?

 

[eberetta1]

I min raise for two main reasons. The first is I do not like people to get a free look at the next card. It should cost them.


The other reason I min raise is I am trying to increase the pot amount and hopefully discourage someone from doing an all in. If I have a premium then yes, I would call their all in. otherwise , I would fold and lose a minimum amount of chips.

 

[manIk5]

I also usually raise more , 2,5-3x times without limpers/bets before me , almost trough all the tourney . When playing cash , always 3x , with limpers even more

 

[TeUnit]

The smallest you can raise that accomplishes your goal in the hand is the right size.

 

[peaceofcoke]

There are books about UOPFR and PFR, 3bet, 4bet limping and your position, and villains tendancies etc. the key component is to understand that you are making an investment, therefore, you are looking for the least amount to enter the pot so you will increase your equity and other's fold value.

 

[Phoenix Wright]

By open-raising less (and min. raise is the extreme of this), the raiser is investing less chips to the pot and getting better pot odds for blind steal attempts. Open-raising smaller might also induce players into continuing with a range of hands not as "correct" as for opening ranges they might be more familiar with (although this becomes less likely the case as min. raises are becoming more common).

Playing straight-forwardly, open raises which are larger should be called with a tighter range, so inversely, min. raising also allows the open-raiser to profitably open a wider range of hands.

I will state that online sees generally lower open-raise sizing than live poker games though. This is partly due to the game pace and partly due to online games often times having a quicker blind structure or less Big Blind effective stacks; these reasons would justify open-raising smaller.

 

[vardyonfire]

Min raise is for those who are mentally strong and who have knowledge about the game. those who intuit properly and who cope with the pressure. I in return to protect my hand give higher raises.

 

[wavetune]

I make a min raise when I have a strong hand and I want to get it so as not to scare the opponent and he does not fold his cards, this sometimes leads to the fact that the opponent makes a re-raise, which is in our favor

 

[pontvadasz]

Not at the beginning of the tournament. I either raise fairly if my hand is premium or just call. I prefer to use it when the blinds are big and it's easier for them to fold to smaller raises.

 

[barbados]

Just one of the tactics. After all, every poker player has his own arsenal of tactics and strategies.

 

[GIB]

I often see a minraise. I think this is a trend of professionals. As a rule, the size of the bet indicates the strength of the hand. I think the stakes still depend on the opponents. When a weak opponent you can bet 3x, because they will call this bet as well.