Raising Preflop
A hand in Texas Hold'em falls into two distinct stages - before the flop and after the flop. Why is there such a watershed? Mainly it's due to the fact that the flop provides three new cards. Hands that were strong before the flop may now be weak and vice versa (even 72o can become a full house with a flop of 772). Another reason the flop is such a pivotal point is that it's now known how many players have entered the pot - preflop if you open from early position you're not going to know how many people you're up against (or, more importantly, 'who' you're up against).The preflop situation is much simpler than postflop. While postflop involves draws and player dynamics, preflop play can be defined in an almost play-book style. The rules of 'if x then do y' can be readily created, and consequently it's the preflop that most beginners will get to grips with first.
Rule 1: What hands to play
From early position open only with strong hands. These are hands that will make strong top pair and not be dominated. Dominated means that they don't have a weakness such that a higher top pair can ruin the hand, or that the kicker is weak. For instance QT seems like a strong hand, but if the flop shows an ace or a king (and it often does) then the Q isn't so hot, or if the board does have a Q, then the ten kicker could easily be beat by AQ, AK or AJ.As you move to late position you can open with a wider rangeThe range of hole cards that a player would be expected to play from a certain position or in a certain situation of hands (see the opening hand chart for a good starting point). From the button you can open an extremely wide range (40% of all possible hands) since you'll definitely have position throughout the hand, and also you have a chance to steal the blinds.
When to open, when to call, and when to fold
When it comes to your turn to act and no-one has entered the pot (ie you're UTG'Under The Gun' position. Preflop this player will be the first to act on a betting round (on later streets the blinds will be the first to act) or everyone before you has folded), then the starting hand chart will give a good indication of whether you should open with a raise or fold. Note we didn't say open with a call (or 'limpEntering a hand preflop with the minimum bet (one big blind)') - if you limp into a pot then you permit the other players to also enter the pot cheaply (for the BB they even get to enter for free). This creates a dangerous situation where you'll be facing many players postflop without any indication of the strength of their hands.For example you limp in with JhTh, and the entire table calls. The flop comes up with 5c6sJc. You have top pair, but from the entire table there will almost certainly be someone with a flush draw, another with a straight draw etc.
However, if you open the pot by raising, then most players will fold their marginal cards. Hopefully you'll only go to the flop facing one other opponent. To deliberately force players to fold to reduce the field is called 'isolation'.
A second reason to raise preflop is to create value for your hand. For instance, you limp in with JJ, and the flop comes out 259r. For the rest of the hand the betting is generally determined by the size of the pot at each street. Both you and the opponent will be comparing the bet against the size of the pot to see if it's worth calling or folding etc. If you and your opponent limped in, then on the flop the pot is 3.5 big blinds(bb). You bet a PSBA pot sized bet, and on the turn it's 10.5bb. Do it again and it's 31.5bb. By the river if you want to get your opponents entire stack (assuming you've both bought in at 100bb, the standard buy-in for most tables), then you'll have to put in a bet much larger than the pot which generally will only be called by monster hands.
However, let's say you raise 3bb preflop instead of limping - that means the pot preflop is 9.5bb. Turn it'll be 28.5bb, river it'll be 85bb. Betting more earlier on can create an exponential growth of the pot (at least with PSB's anyway) - starting the pot out larger will create a lot more value when you make a hand. That growth also means that if you give up early in the hand (say you miss the flop and fold at that point), then you won't have lost that much.
How much to raise
Consider a standard opening raise to be three to five times the big blind. Usually three is fine, but a larger opening raise is advisable when;- You have several limpers opening before you - you need to raise higher as clearly they like something about their hand, but equally you don't want them to play any two suited cards.
- The table is particularly loose, and you'll expect several players to call your opening raise. Again you want to reduce the field, especially if you're going to be out of position during the hand.
- You're in early position. If you're first to act then you're faced with the prospect of potentially the whole table calling. Reduce this chance by raising a bit more. Chances are you'll also have a decent starting hand (assuming you're using the starting hand chart), so a higher than normal raise should help you build a larger pot (don't forget it's hard to get value out of hands when you're out of position).
- You have a strong hand. Clearly this isn't a good idea against observant players, but at the microstakes they often are only considering their own hand. That extra value in the pot at the beginning can help create a lot more value in later streets.