11-29-04, LearnTexasHoldem:
Playing Against A Preflop Raiser
I have been playing a lot recently and here is a situation which comes up a lot and I can tell would make me a lot more money if I knew how to play it properly. There is a preflop raise and I play after the raiser with either AK or a mid pair. In this situation, I call (although this could be wrong) and then run into problems unless I hit my set/pair. Usually what happens is that the raiser bets the pot on the flop. Assuming that there were no cards above, say, a 10 and I didn't hit a set, then what do I do? If he has a pair, he is way ahead. If he doesn't, I am way ahead. Am I just supposed to guess if he has an overpair or not? These are usually quite big pots, especially after he bets the pot, and therefore it could be quite good to have some read on whether or not he has an overpair. The problem, however, is that I have seen people bet the pot on the flop after a raise probably 90% of the time (playing .10/.25 on UB) so I don't see how I can use that as an indicator of an overpair. Thanks for the help!
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Answer:
Let's make sure everyone knows what we are specifically you are talking about here so that the advice I give isn't applied improperly. You are talking about what to do if you are after a preflop raiser and you hold either AK or a mid pocket pair -- mid pocket pair defined as 99, TT, or JJ.
My advice is to 3 bet (reraise) in just about every game. The main reason you would do this is because you have position over the other player. If you have AK and he has a hand like AQ or another nonpair hand, then you don't want to be the person who has to call and hit to win. Let me give you an example of why it is much more favorable to be the bettor with AK in an unimproved flop compared to the caller. The first person raises, you reraise preflop and everyone else folds. The flop is now J-3-2. He checks and you bet. He calls. The turn is another 2 making the flop J-3-2-2. He checks again. At this point you could either bet in hopes that your hand is the best still or that you may improve to best on the river or you could just check and take a free card and then decide whether to call on the river. On the other hand if you just called preflop, he would be betting into you on the flop. You would probably call once and see the turn but then if he bet again, you wouldn't have much of a move besides folding. See calling puts you at a big disadvantage for the rest of the hand. What if the person had a hand like AJ or KJ and check raised you on the flop? No problem, you just call the flop and then fold on the turn if you miss -- costing you very little.
Next, by reraising you cut off competition behind you. With mid pocket pairs and AK, you prefer a small field. One or two opponents is ideal. The more people in preflop, the less likely your TT or JJ will hold up. Let me give you another example on this point... Let's say you have TT and someone limps in (just calls) and someone else raises. If you just cold call their raise, people behind you now assume a number of people are going to call so this would be a good place to gamble and come in with weak hands like suited connectors, etc. If you reraise with JJ or TT against he preflop raiser, it makes all the people (including the blinds) pay much more if they want to see the flop. It also sets you up nicely for the rest of the hand because with that extra bet you also purchased some position. Most likely everyone will fold behind you and you'll be last to act. Using your position you can make good decisions on the rest of the hand to avoid their good cards and maximize the money you make. If the flop comes back with overcards, you lost only 3 small bets. If the flop comes back all low and doesn't help your opponents, you'll make more on your hand while they try to catch an Ace or King.
Position's power is not to be underestimated. By using position you can lose less on the hands you lose and make more on the hands you win. With this said, there are times when I wouldn't reraise with AK or mid pocket pairs and that is when everyone has already called two bets preflop and the action gets to me. Another raise won't cut any out behind me and since so many people are in, I'll need a really strong flop to continue; in this case I'll just call and hope for the best.
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