Raising Versus Betting All In
During a live poker tournament my brother was playing in back in April, he had to ask himself should I raise or should I push all in. He held King King twice (he didn’t tell me what position he was in) and shoved in all his chips both times. On the first all in move he was called by someone holding Queen nine offsuit and the Queen nine offsuit outdrew him hitting two pair by the river.
The second time someone called him with three four offsuit and wound up making a flush on the river. The tournament buy in was $60 and everyone started off with 5,000 in chips, blinds starting at 25/50 increasing every 15 minutes. The problem with moving all in, especially against loose opponents who will call almost any raise is they see the all in move as either A) a chance to take you out of the tournament B) they think you’re weak and believe they have a legitimate chance of winning the hand, or just think that their two live cards can beat your two live cards OR C) they’re new and don’t understand odds. Typically with loose players who love to call raises they fall into the C category. I sure did when I started playing. All in moves turned into an excuse to call with something stupid like 73 offsuit because I had enough chips to risk and I loved telling stories of outdrawing opponents with terrible hands just because it made me laugh.
Making a minimum sized raise will not scare anyone away. Making your raise along the lines of 8 times the blind encourages the C group to try and beat you. According to many poker books the magic number is 4 times the big blind but then again that all depends on what kind of table you are sitting at. Loose players who love to call are only calling to try and build up chips quickly or wind up eliminated and move on to the next game.
They aren’t all the concerned with the fact that you hold a 4/5 shot of winning the hand. It’s tournament poker, not a table game so opponent’s moves will be quite different. Even at a table game opponents may make strange plays where they call your all in or outrageously large raise just to see if they can beat you. Keep your raises with Ace Ace, King King, etc somewhere in the 4x to 6x the big blind to keep your tighter players out of the pot because they know what kind of hand you’re holding and to keep the action players out of the pot because they don’t see enough money flying into the pot. If you wind up with 1 or 2 callers, all the better as the odds are in your favor, but then again the luck factor may give you a horrible flop for your hand. Poker is and always has involved an element of luck in the game and you won’t always win holding the best hand pre-flop.
But, knowing that your loose opponent only loves to call large raises and not 4x the big blind because its not enough action will keep you from LOSING a huge amount of your chips and anything that isn’t a huge loss keeps chips on your side of the table. Don’t go looking for huge pots every time you hold a monster hand. Pick up the blinds, maybe a few limper’s chips or even 1 or 2 caller’s chips pre flop, but try not to push your whole stack into the middle when you’re holding rockets as you can lose.
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- Pre Flop Strategy For Texas Holdem
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- Texas Holdem Poker Tips
- Learn More Tips About Dangerous Flops in the Poker Game
- Texas Holdem Poker Online Strategy Guide – Best Free Winning Poker Strategies Tips
- Texas Hold Em Poker Game Download and Rules
- Tips for Betting in Poker – Free Real Money Poker Tips
- The Problem With Big Slick
- Omaha Poker Wiki – Game Rules and Glossary
