Don't Second Guess Yourself

You should never outguess yourself when you are at the poker table. I will give you an example; consider the following hand:

You hold: 6c, 6d,

Your opponent in early position raises 4x to 5x bb and you place him on AK.

Flop: Kc, 6h, 7d

Now you have flopped a set, and your opponent is first to act. He sets out and bets just like you expected him to. You play back at him and re-raise. He immediately re-raises you all-in. At this point you have to call. You can't try to outguess your self in this situation and put him on 77 or KK for a higher set. You had originally put him on AK, and if he has a higher set, you are just going to have to pay them off. At the point where he his re-raising you all-in, you are already pot committed and have to call. There is also a possibility that you misread him and he only holds AA in which case you are dominating that hand as well.

From Monsters to Mice

After the flop, much of the strength of your hand depends on the character of the flop. Obviously, if you start with a pair, and make trips, a full house or four of a kind, you have a big hand, these are the Monsters. What is not so obvious is how the strength of your hand changes when you hit a fair hand, but get a flop that may have helped one, or more, of your opponents.

In the rare situation where you have a monster, hope that someone either bets, or catches a card on the turn so they can call your bet. You have an almost unbeatable hand, and the other players are going to be scared off by the flop. Your goal in this situation should be to keep as many players around as possible, and to get as much money in the pot as possible.

With your biggest hands, you may want to slow play and entice someone else into betting. But, in those rare cases when you have the best hand and other players are betting and raising, join in and help to build the pot. After all, it is almost certainly going to be yours. If the board later pairs, and there us any betting, you may be facing a full house.

Two Pair
Flopping top 2 pair when you have 2 different cards in your hand, is a very strong hand. Top and bottom pair is also a very strong hand. Since you will usually be playing premium cards, top 2 pair will often give someone else a straight draw, and/or a flush draw.

As a result, you should not slow play these hands. Your goal is to force players out of the hand, and charge those that stay. While this hand warrants raises and re-raises, lots of action could mean they have a set. If so, or a straight or flush is possible, you could be drawing to only 4 outs.

If the pot has already gotten large, you should call it down. If the pot is not large, or you are positive that the other player has you beaten, with 4 outs you need pot odds of 11:1 to make the call profitable.

When you have 2 pair, and 1 is on the board, your hand is not as strong as the split 2 pair. Another player may already have trips, or a higher 2 pair. If a card higher than your pair hits the board, it could make someone a higher 2 pair. There could also be other draws out that may beat your 2 pair.

This is another situation to play aggressively, to chase players out, win the pot immediately, or at least make it expensive for players to draw. If you are raised, or check raised, on the turn, you may be up against trips. But, by now, the pot has gotten big. You may want to back off and call, but you shouldn't fold unless you are sure you are beaten, or you are facing 3 bets cold.

Top Pair
Top pair, good kicker is a very strong hand. This is 1 reason to treat Big Slick, Ace and King, as a strong hand. With a flop of King, Eight, Three, and 3 different suits you have an excellent hand. The only card higher than the flop pairs your Ace, giving you top 2 pair. There are no flush or straight draws, so you are only worried about Ace, Ace, King, King, or a pair of Eights or Threes in the hole.

You have a strong hand with top pair in the hole when the flop is 3 cards lower than yours and is un-coordinated. If you are the only one who raised with your pair of Kings before the flop, and the flop is Queen, Eight, Three, 3 different suits, you have a very strong hand. There are no straight or flush draws, it is unlikely that someone has a pair of Queens, so you are worried only about an Ace, or another Queen falling, a pair of Eights or Threes.

With hands, and flops like this, you want to get as much money in the pot as possible, since you are a favorite to win.

If you have Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces in the hole, and get a flop such as Eight, Nine, Ten, or 2 of 1 suit, or the board is paired, your hand is not as strong. Your hand is vulnerable to many cards that can come on the turn or river. Now, instead of a limited number of hands that may beat you, you may be facing a flush draw, a straight draw, or both. With a pair on board, you may be facing trips a full house, or a draw to a full house.

In these situations, you want to eliminate players, and try to win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, you should check and raise, to face several players with calling 2 bets. If you are not sure that someone else will bet, you bet. You can not afford to give players a free draw.

When you start with Ace, Queen, Ace, Jack or Ace, Ten, and pair your Queen, Jack or Ten, you have a hand that is mediocre to somewhat strong, depending on the flop. If your pair is the top pair on board, and the flop has no draws, you have a fairly strong hand. But, it is vulnerable to over cards on the turn or river. Ace, Queen, with a flop of Queen , Six, two, or Ace, Jack, with a flop of Jack, Six, Two, the further down you go with this, the more hands that can beat you. With an Ace, Queen, and an Ace on the flop, you are beaten by someone with Ace, King. With an Ace, Queen, and a Queen on the flop, you are beaten by anybody holding a King if a King falls. With Ace, Jack, and a Jack on the flop, you are beaten by any King, or queen, that pairs someone.

Once again, you want to eliminate players, or win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, check and raise. If you are not sure that someone will bet, bet out. You can not afford to give players a free, or cheap, draw in this situation.

If you make top pair, such as a pair of Eights, or Sixes, with your second card when you have an Ace, you have one of the mice. There are many cards that can fall on the turn and river that will give one of your opponents a higher pair. In addition, if all 3 cards on the flop are lower than a Ten you are often facing straight and/or flush draws.

Another mistake made by low limit players is to treat a pair of Aces, with a bad kicker, as a strong hand. It is one of the mice. You have an Ace and Five of hearts in the blinds and get in the pot cheaply hoping for a flush draw on the flop. Instead, you pair the Ace, and there are no hearts. You have top pair, but the more opponents you have, the more likely it is that someone has an Ace with a higher kicker.

With these hands, if someone bets, fold and save some money. You have 5 outs that will improve your hand, the 3 Aces, and 2 of your pair, or the 3 remaining of your kicker, and the 2 remaining Aces. In order to call a bet in this situation, you need to be getting pot odds of at least 8.5:1. Since you could improve your hand and still lose, you probably want odds of at least 10:1. If there are players to act after you, you need higher odds, to make up for the times that a player to your left raises.

With a pair of Tens or lower, you will usually only have a strong hand after the flop if you hit the third card for your set. Occasionally, the flop will all be lower than your pair, and be un-coordinated. Also, occasionally, you will hit a straight draw with your pair. Most often however, you will hit a card higher than your pair, face some betting, and should fold.

If you do hit your set, you have a very strong hand. You should bet out, or raise if someone else bets. In low limit games, players will often not believe you have a set if you bet, or raise, on the flop. They will expect you to slow play such a strong hand, and not raise until the turn. They will therefore often call all the way with as little as one small pair.

Second or Bottom Pair
These are more mice. In low limit games, someone who bets, normally has at least top pair. If you have 2 different cards in the hole and paired 1 of them, you have 5 outs to improve, 2 more cards of the rank you paired, and 3 of your second card. With a small pair in the hole, you only have 2 outs to improve. Even if you include implied odds, it is unlikely that you will have the odds you need. To make matters worse, you really need better odds to make up for the times you hit 1 of your outs and still lose. You also need higher odds from the pot if there are players still to act after you.

The only time you should call a bet with second or bottom pair is when the pot is big, your second card is higher than any of the cards on board, and you also have a backdoor draw, 3 to a straight or flush.

Reasons to Raise in Poker

There are 5 major reasons to raise:

• To get more money from your hand.


• To eliminate players.


• To get a 'Free' card.


• To gain information.


• To bluff or semi-bluff

1. To get more money from your hand.
This is the simplest reason to raise a pot. Basically when you feel that you have the best hand you are going to raise to try to get more money in the pot. If you have the 'Nuts', the best hand possible at the time this is the only reason you should raise. Sometimes you may not want to raise in this case. You may want to slow play the hand.

2. To eliminate players.
This is a pretty simple concept as well. This is the reason you raise with AA or KK. You want to get people out before they can see the flop. AA and KK do very well against a few people but against a lot of people there's a good chance you will loose after all 5 cards come out. Another time when you might raise to eliminate players is when you flop top pair, example: You hold AK and the flop comes 9 10 K, You now have top pair with the best kicker. Here you would want to get people out of the hand so they don't make 2 pair, a straight, or a flush.

3. To get a 'Free' card.
Well you don't get it for free but it costs you less. You would raise to get a free card if you flop and open ended straight draw or flush draw and were in a later position. See if you were playing 3-6 and you raised on the flop you would put an extra 3 dollars but in most cases the other player or players will check to you assuming you have a better hand. This saves you from calling a 6 dollar bet on the turn, instead you get it for free. You might also want to raise the flop in late position when you have top pair and a weak kicker or mid pair with a good kicker.

4. To gain information.
This is a more complex reason to raise. This move works best on or before the flop. Before the flop you don't know anything about a players hand other than it could be anything but if you raise and a player re-raises then you know he has a good hand. Most likely a hand in Group #1 or maybe #2. If he just calls you know that he probably doesn't have a 'monster' hand. Now lets say after the flop you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker, and your opponent bets into you. Now if you call you couldn't really tell how big of a hand he has but if you raise him and he re-raises you are probably beat at least with a better kicker. This is a way to actually save money. If you called all the way down to see his AK then you have lost a lot more than you have to.

5. To bluff or semi-bluff.
We wont get into bluffing right now. You really wont need to do much bluffing in lower limit games. Most bluffing goes on in higher limit games, No-limit games, and no-limit tournaments. Semi-bluffing however is something you need to know about. Semi-bluffing is betting a hand that probably isn't the best one at the time but can improve with more cards. The real goal to semi-bluffing is to win the pot right then and there. So you only want to semi- bluff when there are only a few player in the pot, you think you everyone might fold after you bet or raise, and you are very sure that no one will check raise you. There are many opportunities to semi-bluff in every game, most of the time they are not the right move though. Remember to semi-bluff accordingly.

If you look back at all the reasons to raise you will see that a lot of the times when you raise you might accomplish more than one goal. You might raise to get a free card but also gain information and get more money in the pot. Its good to have a specific reason or two in your mind before every raise, this way you wont be raising just for the sake of raising.

Final Thoughts on Raising
Next few times you play poker online have a notebook right in front of you. Every time you make a raise write down what the main reason for raising was. Then write down if it was successful or not. After you have about 25 entry's for each of the 5 reasons look through your records and find out what reasons for raising had the most positive results. This will help you decide when you should raise or not.

It is a good idea to do this activity every so often. It will help you keep on your game and raise at the right times.

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