Preflop Play: Raise or Limp
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Good poker players have very deliberate reasons for everything they do at the table. Here we will discuss the reasons behind raising and limping in preflop play.
Raise
To drive out other players with sub-standard hands. Any hand has better odds against fewer opponents. From Phil Gordon's Little Green Book
Pocket Aces against a random hand wins 85% of the time. Pocket aces against four random hands wins 55.8% of the time.
To gain information about your opponents hand. If you raise and get called you can effectively narrow the range of hands your opponent(s) may have as most players will not call a raise with just any two cards.
To take control of the betting. You tell the table you have a good hand and expect it to hold up. Raising in later rounds reinforces this fact.
As a way of disguising a weaker hand with the intention of outplaying a weaker opponent in later betting rounds.
Obviously raising when you think there is a good possibility that everyone will fold to pick up the blinds. In my opinion picking up the blinds effectively is an underrated skill.
Limp
With the intention of re-raising a raiser. Limping with a strong hand at a fairly active table where people are raising often with a large range of hands can be a great play to set up a re-raise.
Against weaker players in earlier position who are not particularly good at post-flop play. You are allowing your opponent the opportunity to make a large mistake like over betting the pot as many weaker players tend to do.
Limping in can also serve as an effective way to disguise the strength of a very good hand. It also causes weaker players to think twice about raising your limp which allows you to limp in with a larger range of hands.
In most instances I prefer raising to limping. I use this simple thought process; Is my hand good enough to raise with? If yes, raise. If no, fold.
Simple? Yes. Most concepts in poker are simple. It is in the application where many fall short.
posted by JD52 @ 11:30 PM,
