Pre-Flop Play: Why You Want To
Be the Raiser
In No Limit Hold Em, a lot of emphasis is
placed on post flop play, however some of the
most important decisions you can make in a cash
game come before the board is ever dealt. How
you act before the flop will determine how you
can play afterwards.
To Limp, Or To Raise?
Your decision of how you are going to play
your hand before the flop should rely on a
couple different pieces of information, mainly
your hand, your table position, and the action
that has taken place in front of you. Your
decision is also going to inherently take into
account the way you play; how aggressive you
are, your image at the game, and how your
opponents are playing. Whatever the game
situation is, you want to be hitting the flop
heads up as much as possible.
What's The Benefit of Raising?
There are many poker players who you will see
raising just to raise. This is a bad habit to
get into. Here are some of the benefits of being
the first one to raise the pot with a big hand
in a cash game
Raising Isolates Your Opponents:
Raising the pot is going to weed out a
lot of the marginal hands that may play
for the minimum. For someone to call you
when you raise with your big hands, they
are going to need something solid as
well. The reason you want to be heads up
before the flop is that your monster,
like A-A, will hold against one pocket
pair most of the time. The more hands
you face going to the flop, the better
chance someone will make a straight,
flop a set, etc. You want your odds of
winning the pot to be as high as
possible.
Raising Increases Your Implied Odds:
When you are raising with a monster
hand, you are likely to have the best of
it. When you have the best hand you want
to make the most money possible while
getting heads up, so having the most
money in the pot that you can means
being able to win the most money
possible.
Raising Gives You Fold Equity:
When players see that you are making
raises with big hands, you are going to
get respect.
When you are putting
in a raise, you are signaling that you
have a big hand. Whether or not you
improve your hand on the flop, you have
already let them know you are strong and
another bet will often get them to lay
it down.
If you have a big hand, but have a sense that
someone is holding a bigger one, then you do not
have the most equity for that hand. In this
situation, keep the pot small until you can put
your opponent on a hand and raise your equity.
It is better to be wrong and win a small pot
than be stubborn knowing your second best and
losing a big one.
One of the best things about poker is that
there is no hard and fast way to play the game.
Different styles is what makes it interesting,
but some basic things to keep in mind are to
always be raising with a premium hand when you
are in middle to late position and it is folded
or limped to you. The only two situations to not
raise in are if you are looking to make a crafty
play with a premium pair, or you are wanting to
limp just to re-pop it when someone raises.
In those positions with a mediocre hand,
mixing in limping and raising is a good idea.
How you play the specific hand will depend on
your image and how strong you feel the other
players are in front of you. If you want to be
seen as an aggressive player who plays hard
after the flop, do a lot of raising in these
spots.
Limping with smaller pairs is an acceptable
play, as you want to be able to see a flop and
hopefully hit a set. If you do not hit your set,
it should be very easy to fold your pocket 3's
to any bet.
Once you become proficient at playing after
the flop you can start to play a lot more hands.
Unless you know for a fact that you can outplay
your opponents, stick to these guidelines and
only raise with your monsters.
