How to raise preflop?

I have heard it is not good to raise progressively based on the quality of your hand because it gives away the strength of your hand. So should you raise the same amount evertime, say $3 in a $25 NL game at party poker no matter if your hand is a group 1 hand or a group 5 hand? I have also heard that it is good to mix up your raising like raising only $2 every once in a while with AA when you would usually raise $5 or raise $5 with QJo when you would usually only raise $2. What does everyone think?

you'll lose money if you raise your hands like that. the players at party poker don't care about your hand standards anyways.

Playing 6-max, if I am the first to raise in a hand I will almost always raise to 3x-6x the BB. Playing 6-max, I wil generally raise 3x bb with no limpers before me, 4x bb with 1, and 5xbb with 2, though I will mix it up sometimes. You could do the same thing at ring games, just raising by 1x more the bb for every additional limper. This will keep anyone from (correctly) putting you on a hand by your raise since you are basing it on position/# of people already in pot, and also uses pot odds to your advantage (since other people are getting better pot odds and implied odds to call your raise the more people are in the hand, raising by progressively more the more people in the hand limits their odds). If you were going to raise the same amt. every time preflop, which isn't a terrible idea, 4x or 5x the BB is good.

The strategy of mixing up your raises/maintaining a steady 3-4xBB raise is really only applicable to Tourneys and High stakes ring games. At Party you should be raising harder on group 1-2 hands than group 3-4 hands.

Ideally, decide what you want your raise to do, do you want to fold people behind you so that your last to act on the flop, do you want to play heads up, etc. and bet the amount that you feel will accomplish that goal.

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Originally Posted by asianvato

I have heard it is not good to raise progressively based on the quality of your hand because it gives away the strength of your hand.

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Thats a bad rule to follow. Raising and the amount to raise depends on alot of factors (e.g. opp, #opps in, cards, position, etc). Generally, you want to communicate the strength of you hand to your opp, it will encourage folding. Also (generally), you want to deceive the strength of you hand if its overly strong (trips, flush, etc) and that might be a time to not bet aggressive at the start. Most of the time I wouldnt try and deceive unless I had a semi-nut hand

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Originally Posted by asianvato

So should you raise the same amount evertime, say $3 in a $25 NL game at party poker no matter if your hand is a group 1 hand or a group 5 hand?

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No. The idea is to mix-up your play. If you become predictable, you are giving too much information to your opps.

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Originally Posted by asianvato

I have also heard that it is good to mix up your raising like raising only $2 every once in a while with AA when you would usually raise $5 or raise $5 with QJo when you would usually only raise $2. What does everyone think?

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I dont like these examples,... For AA (to change it up), I would try a limp/raise or a lead raise. QJo isnt that strong. I might limp from behind or raise on the button.

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Originally Posted by Krapp

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Originally Posted by asianvato

So should you raise the same amount evertime, say $3 in a $25 NL game at party poker no matter if your hand is a group 1 hand or a group 5 hand?

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No. The idea is to mix-up your play. If you become predictable, you are giving too much information to your opps.

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How is it predictable if you raise the same every time? How would your opps be able to put you on a hand? I'm asking because this is what I do in the lower limit games. I'll raise the same with AA - JJ, AKs - AQo, and sometimes high suited connectors in late position. My thinking is that they never know what I have, so they can't put me on one specific hand. If you only raise to 5BB with aces or kings, that to me seems predictable and everyone will know what you have. This has seemed to work for me as I can usually take it down if I didn't hit the flop with a raise.

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Originally Posted by rivercrest13

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Originally Posted by Krapp

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Originally Posted by asianvato

So should you raise the same amount evertime, say $3 in a $25 NL game at party poker no matter if your hand is a group 1 hand or a group 5 hand?

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No. The idea is to mix-up your play. If you become predictable, you are giving too much information to your opps.

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How is it predictable if you raise the same every time? How would your opps be able to put you on a hand? I'm asking because this is what I do in the lower limit games. I'll raise the same with AA - JJ, AKs - AQo, and sometimes high suited connectors in late position. My thinking is that they never know what I have, so they can't put me on one specific hand. If you only raise to 5BB with aces or kings, that to me seems predictable and everyone will know what you have. This has seemed to work for me as I can usually take it down if I didn't hit the flop with a raise.

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Yup, I normally keep my pre-flop raises pretty consistant too. Whether I have AA in the hole or AJ is their problem, not mine.

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Originally Posted by rivercrest13

How is it predictable if you raise the same every time? How would your opps be able to put you on a hand? I'm asking because this is what I do in the lower limit games. I'll raise the same with AA - JJ, AKs - AQo, and sometimes high suited connectors in late position. My thinking is that they never know what I have, so they can't put me on one specific hand. If you only raise to 5BB with aces or kings, that to me seems predictable and everyone will know what you have. This has seemed to work for me as I can usually take it down if I didn't hit the flop with a raise.

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You definately dont want to have a certain raise to a certain preflop hand.. Some folks might raise more with AA, KK, QQ, etc vs AK, JJ,... From what you do, the obvious information that your giving away is when you limp, you dont have these premium hands. Depending what you do on the flop can give unwanted information to you opps. To mix-it up, you can try limping and also raising some medicore/garbage hands. The goal is to try and be unpredictable so they stay-in when you have monsters and fold to your bluffs. Although, I dont think you can go wrong with a smooth 2.5-3x for each preflop raise.

Another note: Sometimes the texture of the table can determine the preflop raise. E.g. If the "standard" preflop raise is 4x, you might want to consider that amount or more folks might call than you would like. Also, if more people limped infront of you and you goal is to limit the table, you might want to consider raising a bit more.

My first rule with raising revolves around the amount of money I can extract from the opp. If I am holding AA and get an all-in call, I would much rather try that action...

I sometimes do raise with trash in late position to try to pick up a quick pot, but I don't like to limp with a good hand. Occasionally, I'll do a min raise in early position with AA or KK. Usually, I'll either get a re-raise or a lot of callers. Sometimes, it seems like it's worth the risk to get a few more callers than you'd like rather than just get the blinds. There's nothing worse IMO than just getting the blinds with a high pocket pair.

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Originally Posted by rivercrest13

There's nothing worse IMO than just getting the blinds with a high pocket pair.

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How about getting your monster cracked and losing your stack? I'd say that's worse. :wink: