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No
Limit Hold'em Raises |
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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 week's article though.
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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.
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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 even 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.
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IThink about why you are raising, what you
want to achieve, and use the appropriate
amount of your stack.
See you next week folks,
Dave
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