Advanced Open-raising (FR)

Introduction

In this article

• Your exact position at the table
  
• Which hands can be played profitably from which positions
• When you should play tighter and when you should play looser
  
• How high your pre-flop raises should be and why
  
  

The Starting Hands Chart from the Bronze Section got you off to a good start in pre-flop play. The chart is simple and all you need to get started. Once you start working your way up the limits, however, you will have to start working on advancing your pre-flop game.

This article will show you how to hone your starting hand selection at full-ring tables.

You will learn to differentiate between each individual position instead of just between position groups and how to best categorize your starting hand.

You will also receive a detailed Starting Hands Chart. This chart will be your guide as you start developing your pre-flop game beyond a beginner's level.

What is your position at the table?

The Bronze article, "How to Play Before the Flop" taught you how to determine your position at a poker table. This is very important, since the strength of your starting hand depends partly on the number of players after you who could still enter the hand. You can also play your hand much more profitably when you are in position.

You learned to differentiate between 4 position groups, namely, the early, middle and late positions, as well as the blinds. That was good for starters, but now it's time to look at more than just the individual position groups. The Starting Hands Chart you will be given later in this article requires you to differentiate between each individual position.

Dealer 2 late positions 3 middle positions 3 early positions 2 blind positions Move the mouse cursor over each group to see the corresponding seats.

The two late positions Button and Cutoff
The dealer and the player to his right are in the late positions. The dealer is also called the BU (Button); the player to his right the CU (Cut-off).

The three middle positions MP1, MP2 and MP3
The three players to the right of the CO are in the middle positions. They are referred to as MP1, MP2 and MP3. 

The three early positions UTG1, UTG2 and UTG3
The three players to the right of MP1 are in the early positions. They are referred to as UTG1, UTG2 and UTG3.

The two blind positions SB and BB
The two players who post the blinds are, of course, in the blind positions. They are also simply referred to as the blinds. The player who posts the Small Blind is referred to as (the) SB, the player who posts the Big Blind is referred to as (the) BB.

When there are less than 10 players at the table you have fewer individual positions. Start by eliminating the early positions, then the middle, etc.

And remember, the dealer button is always your starting point when determining the positions at the table.

The advanced Starting Hands Chart

Now it's time to show you the new Starting Hands Chart. It is made up of three tables: the standard table, the minimal table, and the maximal table.

When you start using the advanced Starting Hands table you should begin with the standard table. Using this table guarantees that your pre-flop play will, on average, be profitable.

There are, of course, reasons to make looser raises at a table. For instance, if there are many super-tight players after you, or if there are already a couple of limpers before you. If it really looks like a good case for a raise, you can loosen up your range after quickly consulting the maximal table. That doesn’t mean that you should play all hands in the maximal table, but you can raise a few more hands than are found in the standard table.

The more hands you raise, the more probable it becomes that your opponents protect themselves and e.g. 3-bet you more lightly. In addition, you will often come to the flop in marginal situations. You’ll need a good post-flop game and experience in dealing with marginal situations.

If there are too many factors against a raise, you should only raise the hands that are in the minimal table. You will, however, seldom encounter this situation in practice.

Eventually, you will have to start evaluating which hands are profitably playable and which are not, based on the situation. You need quite a bit of experience for this, as you can’t always raise suited connectors for value. That’s why you should gradually, and in small increments, move from the standard table to the maximal table.

There will rarely be situations, where you can exactly say which table is the right one to use. That’s why you’ll often find yourself “between tables”.

Consider this: It’s pretty cool to play LAG, but very few have post-flop skills, that let them also play loose ranges profitably. Your aim is not to be the coolest and loosest LAG, but to increase your win rate.

For this reason, wean yourself carefully from the standard table as you start moving towards the maximal table, and observe your game closely. If it occurs to you e.g. you don’t really like playing bad Aces, then fold them pre-flop. But keep working on yourself and your game.

These tables are only an aid to help improve your game. One’s own ideas and preferences should always rank above stubborn adherence to the tables. Trust your own thought process and find your own playing style as time goes by.

The standard table:

The minimal table:

The maximal table:

Download the tables in .pdf format

The tables show you the hand ranges with which you can raise profitably from each position. If you see AT+, for example, you can profitably raise from that position with AT, AJ, AQ and AK.

The hands are divided into pocket pairs, ace high hands (Ax), king high hands (Kx), queen high hands (Qx), jack high hands (Jx), as well as connectors and one-gappers.

Connectors are two hole cards in sequential order, a seven and an eight, for example. If a card is missing in the sequence, a seven and a nine, for example, the hand is referred to as a one-gapper. The tables also differentiate between suited (J8s, for example) and off-suited (J8o, for example) hands.

Calling and overlimping is rarely your best option when no one has raised before you; raising is usually more profitable, which is why you will usually raise when you have a hand you want to play and no one raised before you.

There are, however, some situations in which it is better to call even if no one raised before you. If you have a speculative hand (like suited connectors or a small pocket pair) and there are already several players in the hand, or very loose players at the table, it is often better to just call and take a cheap look at the flop, since you won't be able to take down the pot with a raise often enough.

Here is a list of factors that indicate whether you should be more inclined to raise (= maximal table) or less inclined to raise (= minimal table):

When should you be more inclined to raise?

• Weak players have already entered the hand.
• You have weak players after you who might still enter the hand.
• The players after you fold very often.

When should you be less inclined to raise?

• The players after you are very aggressive.
• Good players have position on you and can act after you after the flop.

What should you do when someone raises before/after you?

Any time you are confronted with a raise before you, the range of hands you can profitably play depends heavily on the position of the open-raiser. In other words, there are fewer hands you can play against a raise from early position than against a raise from late position.

You also have to look at how the open-raiser has been playing. You can argue that it is always profitable to raise with QQ+ and AK, but sometimes it is better to call with these hands. Everything else depends on factors that are too complicated to be included in a table in any sensible manner.

If your opponent has a weak range, meaning he will have to fold to a re-raise fairly often (which, for example, is often the case after a raise from late position), you can raise with a lot of hands that have good playability. This includes small pocket pairs and suited connectors, for example.

If your opponent has weak range but is not likely to fold to a re-raise, you add strong faces (like AQ, AJ, KQ) and medium strong pocket pairs (JJ, TT) to your range.

Whether or not you are in a blind position should not influence your decision. If you are in one of the blinds will you be out of position after the flop. This is not a very pleasant situation to find yourself in when you have a hand with decent equity but poor playability. This category includes medium strong face cards and medium strong pocket pairs.

These hands are not easy to play out of position, since they will rarely give you a hand that you want to go all-in with. On the other hand, you don't want to be bluffed off the best hand, either.

You also have the option (especially when you are in position) of simply calling a pre-flop raise. This can be very profitable when you know you can outplay your opponent after the flop. You can also consider cold calling when you think re-raising would probably only force out weaker hands and isolate you against better hands.

If several raises were made before you, AA and KK are the only two hands that can always be played profitably. The Equilator can also help you decide whether it is better to raise or fold in such situations.

You can theoretically (especially when in position) just call to avoid isolating yourself against a better range, but you have to be very careful in such situations.

If you didn't make the first raise, there will always be at least one other player in the hand. Calling allows him to take a cheap look at the flop, or even to bluff. This is why you should usually only call a re-raise when you were the one who made the original raise.

How large should your re-raise be?

A normal pre-flop raise or re-raise (3-bet) doesn't cost you a large portion of your stack. As long as this is the case, you should size your with the goal of building up the pot without making it too easy for your opponent to fold weaker hands.

Empirical evidence has shown that pot size raises are best. After a pot size raise your opponent will have to pay at least half as much as is already in the pot at the moment in order to see the flop. In other words: You give your opponent 2:1 pot odds.

So how do you know how large a pre-flop pot size raise is?

If no one has raised before you, you raise the amount that gives the player in the Big Blind 2:1 pot odds. He has invested the most money in the pot so far, which is why he gets the best pot odds.

If no one has entered the hand, a pot size raise is exactly 3.5 BBs (Big Blinds). After you raise 3.5 BBs there will be a total of 5 BBs in the pot (0.5 from the Small Blind, 1 from the Big Blind and your 3.5 BB raise) and the player in the Big Blind will have to pay another 2.5 BBs to see the flop.

These 3.5 BBs are usually rounded up to 4 BBs. This is due to the fact that players in the micro limits and low limits call with too many hands and you, for this very reason, only raise with good hands.

If players have limped in before you, there will be an additional 1 BB per limper in the pot. This is why you have to raise 1 BB per limper more in order to give the player in the Big Blind the desired 2:1 pot odds.

Your open raise should be 4 Big Blinds + 1 Big Blind per limper.

If exactly one raise was made before you, your goal is to give the player who entered the hand before you, 2:1 pot odds. He is now the player who has invested the most so far, which is why he will get the best pot odds. Apart from this, he is also the one you will be playing against most of the time.

In order to give this player approx. 2:1 pot odds, you must raise 3 * the amount of his raise. If, for example, he raises to 4 BBs, you raise to 12 BBs. There will then be 17.5 BBs in the pot (4 from the open-raiser, 0.5 from the SB, 1 from the BB and your 12) and the opponent who raised will have to pay another 8 BBs to stay in the hand. This gives him 2.2:1 pot odds, which is very close to the desired 2:1.

If another player has already called an open-raise, the pot will obviously be increased by this amount, and you will have to make a larger raise to give the original raiser the desired pot odds.

Raise to 3 * the amount of the original raise + 1 * the amount of the original raise per player who called the raise earlier.

If 2 raises were made in front of you, re-raising would cost you a fair portion of your stack. The Bronze article taught you to go all-in when this is the case.

As you make your way up the limits, you will find increasingly aggressive opponents. The result is that they play with wider open-raising and re-raising (3-bet) ranges in certain situations. In order to adapt, you will have to start bluff re-re-raising (4-bet) before the flop sooner or later.

These bluff 4-bets will be very expensive if you always bet your entire stack in these situations. If you raise to 4 BBs and your opponent re-raises to 12, there will be around 16-17 BBs in the pot. If you were to bluff and go all-in, you would have to pay 94 BBs to win these 16-17 BBs. You would have to get your opponent to fold in at least 6 of 7 cases for this bluff to be profitable, something you will hardly ever manage to do.

A good size for 4-bets is 2.5 * the amount of the 3-bet. This is large enough to generate sufficient fold equity and build up the pot when you have a strong hand and small enough to be used profitably as a bluff in the right situation.

Conclusion

The further you make your way up the limits, the more important it is to work on your game and develop it beyond a beginner's strategy.

This article showed you how to be more selective in choosing your starting hands based on your position, your opponents and the action that takes place before it is your turn to act. Before you play any hand, ask yourself which factors speak in favour of a raise and which speak against it. The three charts are a helpful aid, so that you're not entirely on your own.

Remember that charts are just simplified summaries of complex concepts and that they can never include all relevant information. The day will come when you take your game beyond these advanced charts.

LINKS
PDF: The Starting Hands Chart .pdf (~1MB) Advanced Open-raising Chart (FR) Related Articles: How to Play Before the Flop Before the Flop - The Basics Discussion Forum: Discuss this article in the Forum