Texas hold’em players have a common saying about pre-flop strategy: If your hand is good enough to call with, it’s good enough to raise with.
Put differently: how many players have entered the hand without raising? Normally referred to as a caller, the poker term for these players in the pre-flop betting round is 'Limper'. In the chart named 'Calling from the small blind without any pre-flop raises', you learn with which hands you should call from the small blind with no previous raiser. Click for information on history, terminology/glossary, hand rankings/nicknames and holdem pre-flop chart. The Sequence of Play in Texas Hold'em Poker. The first step in any game is to establish a betting structure. In some instances blinds will be used, and in other instances antes will be.
This philosophy alludes to how you should come into pots aggressively. Raising pre-flop shows strength to other opponents and sets you up for another potential bet/raise after the flop (a.k.a. continuation bet).
Of course, you need to be selective when making pre-flop raises; otherwise, you’ll be spewing chips. And knowing a few crucial factors will help greatly in this department.
Keep reading as I cover the most important aspects regarding Texas hold’em pre-flop raising, including goals, table position, hand strength, bet sizing, knowing opponents, table size, and cash games vs. tournaments.
Poker is always more fun when you get to see the flop because this gives you more action and extra chances to make great hands.
This is why many new poker players call the big blind (a.k.a. limping) instead of raising. Limping into pots is the cheapest way to see the flop.
But limping is also one of the worst plays in poker because it shows little strength in your hand. Furthermore, you can easily be raised by an opponent acting after you.
You especially want to avoid open limping, where you open the pre-flop betting action by calling the big blind. In addition to showing little hand strength, you also can’t take down the pot right away by calling.
Another problem with limping is that you make things easier on your opponents. They can either call behind you to see the flop for cheap or raise and put you in a difficult position.
One more downside to limping is that more players can see the flop cheaply. This gives you less pot equity, or the odds that you’ll have the best hand.
Of course, like anything else with Texas hold’em, there are exceptions when calling the big blind that can work. One example is when there are other limpers at the table whom you can outplay post-flop.
But generally speaking, you want to enter pots with a raise, or at least calling another player’s raise. The key is to look aggressive from the outset so that you deter other players from raising while representing strong cards.
One of the most important things behind raising pre-flop is to have a plan. Furthermore, you want to accomplish specific goals with your raise.
Sometimes your pre-flop raise will check off multiple objectives. Other times, you may be raising with the single goal of stealing the blinds.
Below are some of the most important goals that you can accomplish with a pre-flop raise.
Raising indicates to opponents that you have a good hand, thus increasing the chances that they’ll fold marginal cards. And this is where your fold equity comes from.
Another good thing about fold equity is that it allows you to steal pots even when you don’t improve on the flop. Of course, you should keep the pot small in these situations in case an opponent calls or re-raises.
Having the best hand gives you the most equity in the pot. And you want to build the pot as much as possible when you think that you’re in the lead.
Earlier, I mentioned that raising prevents multiple players from seeing the flop and reducing your pot equity. Ideally, you’ll isolate a single player when raising with a strong hand.
Pocket aces, kings, or queens offer a much stronger chance to win when you’re only facing a single opponent. The goal here is to raise just enough to where only one player will call.
Many beginning poker players focus too much on their hand strength when deciding whether to raise. You also need to strongly consider your table position before raising.
Here are the table positions based on a 9-handed game.
Acting earlier in a hand means that you’ll have less information on opponents. Therefore, a pre-flop raise from early position means that you’re acting before an opponent(s) post-flop.
The general idea is to widen the number of hands you raise with in later seats. This lets you better judge an opponent’s hand strength after the flop.
Here’s an example.
Assuming you were acting in early position post-flop, you’d be left checking and giving the opponent a greenlight to steal. Or you might even bet to steal the pot, only to be called or raised.
But being in position allows you to see that your opponent likely has a better hand and to fold without losing additional money.
No two poker games are exactly the same, and there’s no uniform way to play every hand in each situation. But there are some generalities that work with certain hands.
One example is when you have a premium pocket pair in a pot where nobody has raised. Outside of rare limp/re-raise opportunities, you should almost always raise in this situation.
For the most part, though, you want to use specific situations to decide when you do and don’t raise. Here’s advice for playing different pre-flop hands in a full-ring game, based on your table position and the actions before you.
Again, there are exceptions to any hand based on your opponents and the overall table dynamic. But this guide will get you started when figuring out how to play hands pre-flop.
Bet sizing is another area of pre-flop play that varies based on the situation. But a good guideline is to enter pre-flop pots with a 3xbb or 4xbb raise.
The goal is to bet enough to where most players will be deterred from calling, while isolating a single player. Anything less than 3xbb usually draws multiple callers and defeats the purpose of raising pre-flop in the first place.
Sometimes you’ll find that even a 3-4xbb pre-flop raise doesn’t discourage players from calling. This is especially the case in the micro stakes, where low blind sizes encourage more players to see the flop.
In these situations, you’ll need to consider entering pots with a 5xbb raise or higher. This is something that you’ll just have to feel out after playing some hands and studying the table dynamic.
Knowing individual opponents is crucial to making good pre-flop raises because it helps you better accomplish your raising goals.
Here’s an example.
You should stick with the pre-flop hand advice discussed before when coming onto a new table. But also watch for opportunities to break out of ABC poker based on whom you’re playing against.
Keep in mind that reading opponents and adjusting your pre-flop raising strategy accordingly requires experience. The last thing you want to do is burn through chips by making fancy moves against players that you don’t have any info on.
The pre-flop hand advice that I covered before works as a general guideline for 9- and 10-player tables. But when you’re playing with 6 people (6-max) or fewer, you need to open up your starting hand requirements.
One reason why is because winning hands aren’t as strong on average due to fewer players. Secondly, you’ll see the blinds more often per hour, and you don’t want to miss out on extra opportunities to win money and cover these blinds.
How wide you increase your starting hand selection depends upon the number of players at your table.
In a 6-max game, you could open your early position raising range to include 9s, 8s, and AQ. At a 3-handed table, you can even add 7s, 6s, AJ, offsuit, ATo, A9 suited, and A8s to this range.
The general rule of thumb is that you need to expand the number of hands you’re willing to raise with on a short-handed table. Likewise, you should be more selective in full-ring games because winning hands will be stronger.
A 3-bet is simply the third bet of a round. Here’s the basic sequence of how 3-betting works in pre-flop play:
3-bets have become more common in poker these days, as players look to turn up the aggression on their opponents. Unfortunately, this move is overused by players who blindly show aggression.
You should always have a plan when 3-betting pre-flop. The two reasons to use this play include 3-betting for value or for a bluff.
A value 3-bet means that you’re in the lead (e.g., with AA, KK, or QQ) and building the pot while isolating one player. The purpose of a bluff 3-bet is to steal the pot from an opponent who’s likely in the lead.
A good bet size, in either case, includes 2x to 3x the pot, depending upon the table dynamic, opponents, your cards, and your position.
If an opponent raises 3xbb (4.5bb in pot), you would re-raise them with between 9bb and 13bb.
I recommend sticking with value 3-bets until you can fully identify situations where bluff 3-bets can work. Here are different things that you need to consider before bluffing with this play.
Another important distinction in pre-flop raising involves whether you’re playing a cash game or tournament.
The main reason for this distinction is that you have a finite number of chips in a tourney. Therefore, you can’t just reload when playing speculative hands that don’t work out.
Experienced tournament players usually have a tight pre-flop style. This keeps them from wasting blinds while chasing drawing hands with long odds.
Of course, you never want to play too many hands in cash games or tournaments. But the latter requires an even tighter style to avoid blowing your limited chips.
Texas hold’em tournament players are often very aggressive when they raise pre-flop, especially in the later stages of a tournament.
At this point, the blinds begin taking away a player’s chip stack. And you need to steal blinds and small pots to stay alive.
Cash game raising differs, though, because you’re always looking at plays that offer the maximum expected value.
Cash game players will rarely find it profitable to raise with pocket 3s in middle position. But tournament players are often forced to make decisions like this because of the rising blinds.
You’ll also find more opportunities to set mine with lower pocket pairs in cash games.
In contrast, it’s almost never a good idea to set mine in tourneys. You have a really low chance of actually flopping your set (11.8%), meaning that you’ll waste valuable chips chasing these draws.
One more important topic I’d like to cover in this discussion is the most common pre-flop mistakes by Texas hold’em players.
Some of these blunders were covered to a degree beforehand. But it’s worth reiterating everything just so that you don’t fall victim to these mistakes.
Poker players lose the most money when playing out of position. And while there are times when you do need to play in front of opponents, you should work to minimize these situations.
One of the worst things you can do out of position is make frequent raises. You leave yourself open to a large number of re-raising opportunities in these cases.
Even if you’re not re-raised, open-raising from early or even middle position puts you at a disadvantage post-flop. You should only open up the range of hands that you’re willing to raise with in later seats.
While late position gives you important information on opponents, don’t overvalue the button by raising too often.
Some players get overconfident on the button and open their raising range too wide. You can get away with this on passive tables, but you’ll eventually bleed out money by being too optimistic with your hand range.
Remember that just because you have position doesn’t mean a strong hand will automatically fold to your raises.
It’s always nice to remain unpredictable to your opponents. But this can go too far when you’re making unconventional moves just to mix up your play.
Sure, you might throw off an open-raiser by flatting them with pocket kings, but chances are that you’re just giving away value by not 3-betting in this situation.
As you become more advanced, there’ll be situations where mixing up your playing style produces good results.
But you’re better off in the long run by making conventional pre-flop raises and re-raises, rather than worrying too much about mixing it up.
If you’re going to chase a straight draw, there’s no better way to do it than with broadway cards. But you also can’t raise with broadway cards too often, especially when they’re not suited.
Suited connectors like JT often play better than KJ offsuit because your hand is unlikely to be dominated when you hit a flush or straight.
Meanwhile, the only thing you have to fall back on when your KJ combo doesn’t connect is a high pair. Kings could be dominated by aces, while jacks can be beaten by three different high pairs.
As I touched on before, you want a plan when raising before the flop. This is especially crucial when your raising goals don’t work out exactly as planned.
Here are some different factors to consider.
A Texas hold’em hand features four streets, and it’s important to master each street on your way to becoming a great player.
But you should fully learn pre-flop play before anything else because this sets the tone for the entire hand.
Coming into pots aggressively with a raise shows strength and forces opponents into more-difficult decisions. It also gives you a chance to win the pot with the best cards, or by forcing your opponents to fold.
Again, consult the advice I gave on what hands are good for raising pre-flop. This will give you a reference point to work off of in the beginning.
But you should adjust your starting hand range as you learn your opponents and table dynamic. Also, keep in mind that the table size will play a large role in what cards you raise with.
The more Texas hold’em you play, the better you’ll be at making pre-flop raising adjustments.
The Pre flop strategy is something through which you can bring changes in your Texas Hold’em games. The people on a table who should see the flop should be around 30% or if it is 20 heads then only 2-3 should be seeing the flop. The factors that you should check are how many players are there and what type of people are they – for example – are they aggressive or passive or tight players. You must also think about the amount you can put out for the stack, the position you are sitting in and also will you be ready to take risk? These considerations are pre flop game planning.
When you consider the positioning of others in Pre flop, you need to consider the dealer – person who deals the hand and the button who is in front of the dealer. The big blind is the person on the left and two places away from the dealer and the small blind sits to left of the dealer. The big blind has a bet in the pot and will be the last one to do the pre flop betting. The small blind sets half of the bet initially and may also call at his turn. The first person to the left of the big blind is in the “under the gun” position as he will bet first in the game.
When you try to find out how much to raise during Pre flop – you need to look at your hand strength and then decide. Inspite of the position you are sitting – if you have a marginal hand, it is fine to go for a good raise. The time when you have a good hand you would like to raise to clear the field to some extent but the more important for you will be to get some good hands to win the pot. With a weak hand you go for folding or need to convince others to fold.
Some common grouping Pre flop would help us keep a look out for such cards easily during the period. For example if you have a pocket pair and smaller pocket pair then the favour goes for the higher pocket pair. If you have a hand of pocket pair on one side and over cards like 55 or lesser – then there is a 55% vs. 45% chance for pocket vs. over cards. If the pocket pair is compared with two under cards then the chance is 80% to 20% but again if the pocket pair is weighed against one over and one under cards – then the favour is for 70% to 30%
When you start the game you are confused about the pre flop strategies, but as you grow experienced you understand the missing link between the pre flop strategies and the actual game. You start keeping some equations with you. Some equations are - if you have two suited cards and under pairs (AK vs. 66) – 66 might get the winning gleam 52% of time. If there is a over pair and under pairs – then the over pair chance is 81% There are various other charts and calculations that you can learn by heart or can download online and get to use – to prepare a strong pre flop strategy while playing Texas Hold’em poker.