No Limit Hold'em Raises
No Limit Hold'em Raises
by Dave Colclough of Bet365Poker
In Brighton this week I had the pleasure of sitting on the same
table as the young Richard Gryko. In my opinion, he is the best
young player on the live British circuit. I don't think he is even
22 years old, but already has an intimidating table presence. Very
few players put the same amount of thought into No Limit Hold'em,
and it most certainly is not a pleasure playing against him. The
sunglasses, his cool persona and ability to make players sweat,
are not the subject of this weeks article though.
During the first level of the main event the blinds were 25/50
and the starting stacks were a deep 7,500. Every pot Richard entered,
he made it 125 to play. A much more experienced player asked 'what's
all this 125 about?'. I found this comment interesting because I
believe that most players make a raise without actually knowing
why they are raising, or more precisely, what they hope to achieve
with their raise. In this situation Richard was 'pot building' and
announcing he had a better than average hand (even if it was only
suited connectors). He knows the 125 is not going to scare anyone
off. Players who were going to call the 50 will probably call 125.
What he was hoping though, was that when he eventually flopped a
monster (possibly a made straight or flush) he would be able to
find an opponent with two pair or another hand they can't put down.
Hopefully because the pot is bigger, the opponent may be drawn into
losing his whole stack, which is obviously better than playing for
a much smaller size pot.
I am also sure he also has confidence in his ability to outplay
his opponents post flop. So, if his opponent indicates weakness,
Richard will go ahead and steal the pot. If the opponent has an
average hand, he will not be prepared to risk a bad call in a bigger
pot this early in a competition. Typical examples of this, may be
raising with 8 9 of hearts and the flop showing A 7 2 off suit.
An opponent may well have called with a pair of 8s, but they are
unlikely to call any bet by Richard.
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In this case of raising to 125, Richard is making a raise where
he is 'looking for action'. Later in competitions it is very important
to know whether you want action with your hand, or whether you are
happy to pick up the blinds/pot as it stands. Let's say the blinds
are now 1000/2000 in the later stages. You have 10,000 chips and
have just been dealt J J. How much do you raise? If you make it
5,000 or 6,000 the Big Blind may call with an Ace rag type hand.
The flop could easily show an Ace, King or Queen, and you could
find yourself having to pass for your last 4,000 when you might
be winning. So, in this case, the best move is raise to 10,000 all-in
pre-flop. You may be unlucky enough to walk into Aces, Kings or
Queens, but this is more than counter balanced by the fact, you
may get called by smaller pairs that you dominate. However, the
importance of moving all-in is that you are removing the very difficult
post flop decisions that this hand poses.
Let's say we are dealt AA in this position of the tournament. We
are a slightly below average stack and beginning to struggle. I
don't get dealt Aces very often. When I get them, I want to double
up. I'll take my chances with the best hand here. I would probably
make a minimum raise here, hoping to trap one of the blinds, or
event entice a re-raise. I may get unlucky and lose to two pair,
but the size of my raise will be looking for trouble. Often, experienced
players will move their whole stack in, scare off hands such as
AQ, and then complain that they couldn't get any action.
Think about why you are raising, what you want to achieve, and
use the appropriate amount of your stack.
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