12-21-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Playing Against Raises In Low Limit Holdem
However, wondering if you have some tips for playing against raises.
I've decided I'm pretty much a weak/tight player at my current level. I know what the good starting hands are and usually stick to them. I usually bet or will call bets when I have top or second pair or some kind of strong draw. And I usually don't raise alot. Generally, I'm pretty conservative and don't like raising or playing against raises either. Basically, if I raise, I often find myself automatically firing out bets on the flop and turn to take down the pot and ultimately seem to lose a good chunck of my chips most of the time.
And playing against raises, I usually don't hit anything on the flop and just find myself folding.
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Now I've done pretty well in the games I've played and have been profitable on-line. Basically, I just stay out of trouble, don't bluff alot and bet/call bets when I have something.
But if people are firing around alot of raises, it really takes me out of my game and makes me uncomfortable. I know I need to improve both playing against raises and raising myself to take my game up a notch.
Just wondering if you have some tips for playing against raises and also for playing pots that you have raised. I really want to get better at this part of the game. Normally, I just find myself sitting back and waiting for big hands before jumping into raised pots. But that can get real costly in short-handed play and that's where I think the problem really shows itself for me.
Thanks.
Travis
Answer:
Thanks for the question Travis.
The first thing you need to think about when playing against another player's raise is to put the raise into context. What does his raise mean? Raises mean different things depending on the opponent. Sometimes you'll find players who only raise with premium hands, the strategy you'll find in many poker books. Then there are plenty of other players who are happy to raise with all kinds of hands from QT to A4s to pocket pairs.
And lastly, you have players who raise every single hand. Your goal is to pigeon hole their play and then use that information when making your decision. An example might be if I know someone raises a lot of hands, more than a person only raising AK and other great hands, and I have AT or AJ against them, I will definitely play -- the decision now would be to reraise or just call. How loose you play against them depends on how loose they are raising. Play hands that do well in short pots; hands with high card strength like KQ or AT instead of suited connectors like 98s or T9s. You want a hand that you can draw to either card and hit.
This makes a big difference. Compare a hand like A5s to QJ. Sure the A5 may be ahead some, but the 5 is almost a dead card. With the QJ you can hit either the Q or the J and have top pair. With the 5, even if you do hit a pair, you're hand won't hold up a lot of the time since every card that comes off on the turn or river may beat you.
The next tip when playing against more aggressive players is to not only put the preflop raise into context but also the rest of their betting. Do they only bet when they have something, or do they bet regardless? If they bet the flop every time, you can't just fold every time.
An example might be if you are heads up with AJ and the flop is 9-6-3. Just because the player bets, doesn't necessarily mean he has you beat, since he bets here in every other case. Position helps a lot. Because you can call the flop bet and then often times the aggressor will check the turn if he/she doesn't have anything. The more you play, the better idea you'll have as to whether you should keep calling or fold. If the player is really giving up a lot of action, the best way to beat them is to just flop a hand and then call them down. There is no need to pay off too much when you don't have a hand yourself postflop (like the AJ example I just gave).
Isolation is what we call when someone open raises and then you reraise them to get heads up. Your raise is intended to knock out much, if not all of the remaining competition so that you can play your hand against just the initial raiser. I would recommend doing this when you can get heads up and you are fairly sure your hand is as good or better than your opponent's.
For example, if you know that your opponent raises all kinds of hands from QJ to A9, then your reraise with AQ is a good play. Sometimes your opponent will actually have AA that time, but it doesn't mean the strategy isn't sound. If you know he is raising with light hands, penalize him. Overall you'll win. Isolation works well but you have to be cautious if there are other players at the table that won't let you get away with this.
The last tip is that you don't always have to play very aggressively post flop against one player. Say you call your aggressive opponent's preflop raise with a hand like AT and you flop top pair of Tens. There is nothing wrong with occasionally just calling him down and letting him bluff off his money. One reason this works well is because often times he will keep betting a worse hand than yours, but if you were to raise him, he would only keep playing with a better hand than yours.
I would recommend easing into this style of play as it takes some experience. Poker is about context and basing your play on that of your opponent's. You try to gather as much information as you can and use that information to your advantage. And the bottom line for starting hands is that if you know your opponent will raise often with hands that are worse than your hand, you are incorrect to fold it.
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