Texas Holdem Minimum Re Raise
If you're talking about no limit holdem, the minimum reraise must equal the current amount to call plus the previous RAISE amount. In other words, if blinds are 1/2, someone calls 2 and someone raises to 7, the minimum reraise amount would be 12 7 (the call amount) plus 5 (the previous raise amount, 7-2). For example, after a 3bb open-raise from the button in No-limit Hold’em, the minimum re-raise size is 5bb not 6bb. This is because the 3bb open-raise is actually a raise of 2bb over the previous bet-sizing (the 1bb BB post). The original opener can then legally re-raise to a total of 7bb after facing the 5bb raise.
Betting Rounds: Before The Flop : Flop : Flop Hands : Turn : River
Before the flop is where it all starts; you are dealt your cards and you are able to make your first decision in the hand.
Preflop play is not as complex as other betting rounds due to the fact that the hand is in its very early stages. The majority of your strategy simply involves choosing your hands carefully and betting the right amount of chips.
Starting hand selection.
Good preflop strategy involves choosing the right cards to fight with and having a good starting hand strategy. Just as you wouldn't send your weakest friend into battle, you don't want to rest your hopes on hands that have very little strength and are likely to get a good hiding from your opponents.
If you have the best hand or one of the best hands every time you enter a pot, you are dramatically increasing your chances of winning money from each and every hand.
The best starting hands are the big pairs and big cards. You should try and stick with big cards like Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks as much as possible, and avoid hands that do not have any of these cards in them. Do not fall into the trap of playing any two cards because you had a 'feeling' that they would do well. If you want to win money, you should fold the cards that are likely to get you into trouble and cost you money.
Betting before the flop.
If you have a strong hand and you want to enter the pot, you should almost always make a raise. If you simply call the big blind, you are giving weaker players the opportunity to see a cheap flop and outdraw you, when it will be better to reduce the number of players who see a flop by making a decent-sized raise. So the next time you want to play with your strong hand, aim to weed out the weaker players and make a good raise.
Bet sizing guidelines.
Min-raising is a popular preflop tournament move, but in postflop situations - especially in cash games - the min-raise is rarely a recommended option.
As far as bet sizing goes, your standard preflop raise should be around 4x the big blind. If you just double the big blind and make that minimum raise, you are not betting enough money to scare other players out of the pot.
With a minimum raise, you will find that a large number of weaker players will still come along for the ride and your raise will not be respected, leaving you open to being outdrawn when the cards come down. Make sure that your preflop raises are strong and are able to sort the men from the boys.
The ideal situation is to be going to the flop heads up with a strong hand. If you are in position too, all the better.
If there has been a raise before you and you have a strong hand, your main plan of action should be to just call if your hand is strong (but not amazing, e.g. AQ, AJ, KQ, JJ), or reraise if you have a very strong hand like AA, KK, QQ or possibly AK. Preflop bet sizing is all part of a good poker betting strategy.
Preflop position.
Your position at the table is going to play an incredibly important role in every hand that you play. As you should know, being able to act after your opponents will prove to be very valuable, and can easily make the difference between winning and losing a hand.
The best position in every hand is going to be the player that is on the button, as this person is going to be acting last on every round in the hand. Seats to the right of the button are also quite favorable, as they will also be one of the last players to be acting on each betting round in the hand.
You can loosen your starting hand requirements a little in late position, as your position is going to give you a big advantage over the other players at the table.
The least favorable positions are going to be the small and big blind, and the first few seats to the left of the big blind. These players will be one of the first to act on each round, which can make playing a hand very difficult. Therefore you should stick to playing only the strongest starting hands from these seats, as your position is going to be a severe handicap that can make marginally-strong hands quite unprofitable.
Before the flop strategy tips.
- Limping is rarely a good play. Always look to either 'pump it' or 'dump it'.
- Raise more if there are limpers before you. Add 1BB to your 4BB raise for each limper.
- If you consistently have lots of players calling your raise preflop, try raising more.
- You can loosen your starting hand requirements at short-handed tables.
- Just because you raise preflop, it doesn't mean that you are committed to the hand.
Texas Holdem Minimum Re Raised
How to play before the flop overview.
If you always start out with a strong hand, you have a much greater chance of winning money from poker. There is no doubt that it is going to be more fun to play every hand under the sun in the hope of catching a big hand and cashing in, but this is just going to lose you money in the long run. Don't fool yourself into thinking that limping saves you money, because it is just a weak play that will consistently drain your bankroll through every session, so don't do it.
The key to good preflop play is to be selectively aggressive, with there being very little in the middle - you should either always be raising or folding. This makes things a lot easier if you are a new player because you have limited yourself to 2 simple (and profitable) options rather than getting confused with whether it is worth limping-in.
Playing a hand.
Go back to the sublime Texas Hold'em guide.
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Comments
Texas Holdem Minimum Raise Rules
When was the last time you 3 bet an early position raise with junk? How many times in your last session? This move is really underused these days and barely discussed but there is a lot to be said for putting in a re-raise again an early position open from an active player. I find this play to be one of the most profitable pre flop moves available at the moment.
Why?
Most good thinking players have opened their game up enough that they are quite liberal opening from anywhere on the table these days, even early position. A good player will be opening suited connectors and suited aces from early position. They will open these because they are hands with great play-ability and equity, even multi-way, and they are representing something stronger too so it fits in line with stories told post flop.
They won’t hesitate to fold pre flop when facing a re raise as they no longer have the lead in the hand and want to play in position. The best way to counter this strategy is to simply re raise and pick it up before the flop. This works very well against the good players, and when you are in position in the hand.
The weak players will often open raise wide pre flop too. They will occasionally call the re-raise pre flop but then fold unless they flop well so a continuation bet is usually all that is needed to win the pot.
Either way, the strategy is effective against both types of player. The key component is that your opponent has shown a willingness to open wide from early position.
When?
You can do this at any point in a tournament but please make sure you and your opponents have sufficient stack size and that you are not committed for lots of chips. It’s usually a good idea to do this with hands that have poor equity or showdown value as you know you are not losing anything if you get 4 bet and you are unlikely to get stubborn post flop. You know you are playing this as a bluff. It’s ok to do it with Ace rag too as this has some blocker value.
I don’t recommend doing this with hands that play well post flop as much as you should be more inclined to play post flop with these hands, particularly in position.
I demonstrated this strategy recently in a low stakes MTT on PokerStars. I made a point of trying to find as many opportunities to re-raise pre flop, in position. It’s quite fun to employ this strategy and very effective! Check it out below in our training video page.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Please email info@texasholdemquestions with feedback and questions.
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Texas Holdem Questions