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Raising pre flop

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A ROYAL FLUSH
Thursday November, 12th 2009 by fullhouse

The strongest move pre flop is raising. It is usually an awful idea to limp into a pot, and calling another player’s raise can often put you in a difficult spot later on in the hand. This is not to say that you should always be raising, certainly not, but it should be your primary move. In poker it is vital that you decide what you are going to do pre flop, and then follow through post flop. If you raise pre flop it will be that much easier to take down a pot post flop. Raises are great not only when you have a strong hand that aims to extract max value, but when you are attempting to take down the pot pre flop and are unsuccessful. This might not make a whole lot of sense to you right now, but keep reading and it will all come together.

When should I be raising pre flop

One of the biggest issues that players commonly struggle with is when they should be raising pre flop. Most players know that they should be raising, but they will often raise with far too many hands or not enough hands. Finding a balance in the hands that you raise with will inevitably be a bit of a challenge at first, but it will become instinctual in time.
Raises should be made when you have a moderate to strong hand from early position to middle position. Limping when you are one of the first players to act in a hand is a terrible choice. It will force you into many post flop pots where you have to play out of position and will disallow you the opportunity to take down the pot pre flop. Not only will you not be extracting any value when you improve your hand on the flop, but you will be stuck when you miss the flop. It is hard to convince a player that you have a strong hand on the flop if you had shown no aggression pre flop. A perfect illustration of this would be a hand like 44 from middle position. The players ahead of you all elect to fold and the action is on you. Perhaps your first thought is something along the lines of “Ehh, 44 is not that great of a hand, maybe I should just limp into the pot.” It is only natural to think this way, but it is entirely incorrect. If you limp into the pot it will be very easy for your opponents to put you on a hand exactly like the one that you do indeed have. This will make it very difficult to play your hand post flop. Poker is all about deception, and limping into the pot makes everything crystal clear.
Running with the 44 example, pretend that two other players call after you limp into the pot from MP. The flop is 6 7 9. There is a great chance that your hand is good. The problem is that it will be hard to convince your opponents of this. They may call with a hand like AQ to bluff you out of the pot on a later street. Maybe they even have A6 and hit bottom pair; these are the types of hands that you would have been able to exploit with a raise pre flop. If AQ calls pre flop you get some value where A6 will usually fold when you raise from MP pre flop.
If you do happen to hit a 4 on the flop it will be difficult to get much out of your opponents. They will likely call you down, but you will be earning much less than if you were able to start building a sizeable pot pre flop.