Learn Texas Holdem

The first important question to ask in a no-limit Texas hold'em hand is: What to do pre-flop? If you are staring at a 72 offsuit, the answer is easy: fold and wait for the next hand. However, what do you do with a hand like AJ offsuit? You'll often want to play this hand, and aggressive play dictates that you should often come in raising. However, how much to raise?

Deciding How Much to Raise Pre-Flop Based on Position

Your decision about raising pre-flop should often depend on where you are in the hand. However, there are two different schools of thought about this. One school is that the earlier in the hand you are, the more you should raise. The reasoning here is that you don't mind ending the hand pre-flop because you will be out of position the rest of the hand. The other school of thought is that you should raise more the later you are to act. The reasoning on this one is that with fewer people to act behind you, you have a better chance of winning the blinds uncontested so a stronger bet will discourage opponents who may think you are just trying to steal and want to play back at you. The other consideration is that you are more likely to be re-raised from an early position, so if you don't have a very strong hand, you may be in a very tough situation if you have already committed many chips with an early position raise.

Deciding How Much to Raise Pre-Flop Based on Your Hand Strength

When deciding how much to raise, you will often want to factor in your hand strength. Independent of your position, it often makes sense to raise more with marginal hands, although this is counter-intuitive. The reason is that with a very strong hand you don't mind getting some action, although you should raise enough to thin the field a little bit. With a weaker hand, you would like to have some fold equity, meaning you can win the hand either if you hit or if you can convince your opponents to fold. If you begin the hand with an aggressive raise, you have a better chance of doing this. The issue here is that if you always raise the same amount according to your hand strength, savvy opponents will pick up a range of hands on you based on your bet sizes.

Bringing it All Together

Since how much to raise based on position is unclear and raising based on hand strength prevents deception, your best bet is to base your raises on a combination of the two. Typically, this means bigger raises with strong hands from early position, since you need to be able to withstand a re-raise, and bigger raises with marginal hands from late position since you will be able to use that position to earn some folds if your hand doesn't hit. However, you will still want to vary this strategy somewhat so opponents don't pick up on what you are doing and you should always be varying your play based on the type of opposition you are facing and the effectiveness of your results.