06Aug

Continuation Betting

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Continuation Betting means that the preflop raiser bets the flop.

This move has been widely popularized after Harrington wrote about it in Harrington on Hold ’em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play.

Most players are making heavy use of it nowadays and are betting the flop as a routine if they where the preflop aggressor.

Five years ago when continuation bets were not as common they were very successful. Nowadays most players expects a continuation bet and does not view it as a sign of strength. This means you should be a bit more selective on when to c-bet.

Bet size for continuation bets are normally between 1/2 the size of the pot and the size of the whole pot.  In general you should bet more if the board is wet than when it is dry.

Good conditions for a c-bet bluff

  • Only one opponent – you should rarely c-bet bluff against two opponents and almost never against more opponents than two
  • You have position
  • The flop has hit your hand range better than opponents, read Flop Texture for more discussion on this
  • Opponent folds often to  c-bets

Bad conditions for a  c-bet bluff

  • Several opponents
  • Wet board
  • Calling station(s)
  • Against overly aggressive players
  • Against players who floats a lot

How to defend against  c-bets

If you have a good hand you can act accordingly and call or raise depending on ranges, opponent and board etc.  But how can you defend if you don’t have a hand that is likely to be better than opponents or with a good draw?

There are two main strategies:

Most of the time you should fold if you don’t have a good hand though.

In general Floating is the better option for defense if the board is dry and raising on the flop is better if the board is wet. Why?

Because when you float on a wet board and the turn is a blank it is a higher risk that the opponent will put you on a draw and fire a second bullet. But a raise on a wet board is scary because opponent needs to think not only about hands that are beating him now – but also on the scary cards that may come later.

06Aug

Floating the Flop

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Floating the flop means calling on the flop with a poor hand with the plan to bet on the turn if opponents check.

This works best under the following conditions:

  • You are heads up against one opponent
  • You have position
  • Opponent continuation bets too often on the flop, but too rarely on the turn
  • You have some equity in the hand if the bluff doesn’t work out (for example a gutshot draw or overcards)
  • The flop hits your hand range better than his and is not too wet. Best flops to float in general are rainbow flops with no high cards (particularly not aces) and not too connected.
  • Opponent is on a fairly tight range, otherwise he might catch a draw on the turn or hit something else.
  • Opponent has low WTSD (Went to Showdown) to make sure they are not check calling often on the turn
  • Our image is not overly loose / aggressive / tough

If the turn is hitting his range well you should consider abandoning the plan or at least wait for the river. For example if opponent has raised with 5 % range, the flop is 9 5 2 rainbow but the turn is an Ace. In this example opponent will have at least a pair 100 % of the time and a bluff is unlikely to succeed.

Defense against floating

Example:

We look at an example with a dry flop since those are most commonly floated.

You are playing $1-2 No and raise to $6 from MP. A single opponent calls on the button. You have played him before and knows that he is almost only cold calling with low to medium pocket pairs.

The flop is Td 6h 2c

So how should you proceed in this hand against an opponent who likes to float and is a good at it?

Most of the time your opponent will have a pair. He will probably call a flop bet most of the time, since the flop is not hitting your range well and he has at least a pair.

If you have two overcards, the best option might be to not bluff, just check and fold to a bet accepting the fact that your opponent is ahead of you most of the time.

If you have a big overpair, what to do then? Let’s say you bet on the flop, opponent calls. You bet turn and opponent raises? This will put you in a tricky spot, since you don’t want to let go of a pair of aces. But calling here and folding to all-in on the river does not feel good. And if you call here and call all-in on the river, you will in general give your opponent good implied odds for set-mining.

In this scenario the best defense is to check either on the flop or on the turn. This will make sure the pot does not get unreasonably big. If your strategy against this kind of opponent is to mostly check the flop with overcards it makes sense to check with aces here. If opponent bets you call the on the flop. If he continues to bet on turn and river, you can call him down without making the pot huge. If he checks the turn, you can bet the river most of the time to get value from his medium pairs – and most of the time call a raise. This way, by check calling him down the pot will become about $85 – or 42 big blinds. If he has a set you will have lost about 25 % of your stack – but that is not enough to give him proper implied odds to set-mine, considering that you will have overcards a lot of the time.

If opponent has a wider range it is usually best to c-bet this flop since it is unlikely to have hit him. If he calls now, he might have a weak pair. How to proceed now will be dependent on game-flow and opponent tendencies.

05Aug

Reading the Flop

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Understanding of  Flop Texture and Hand Reading abilities are probably the most important skills in Texas Hold’em.

Flop Texture refers to the nature of the cards on the board, how they fit together and how they fit to different ranges.

In this article we are using the term Dry board to refer to boards that offer few drawing possibilities and Wet boards to refer to boards offering a lot of drawing possibilities. Boards in between are neutral. Some players are using the term wet boards to refer to flops that are dangerous in relation to opponents range. Personally I don’t think this makes much sense since a flop than will be both wet and dry depending on whose perspective you are looking from. And you can’t say anything about it without information on which ranges the players are likely to have.

When evaluating the flop it helps by using some characteristics:

  • High cardedness
  • Pairedness
  • Garbage (no high card, limited drawing possibilities)
  • Suitedness
  • Connectedness

The last two are what makes flops draw heavy.  The first two and the absence of any of these characteristics makes boards have limited drawing possibilities.

In this discussion we will also look at how well suited different flops are for a continuation bet with a strong hand range (15 % of best cards) versus two different ranges; a drawing range consisting of mostly low to medium pairs and suited connectors and one-gappers and a range consisting mostly of low to medium pairs. Let’s call the first a drawing range and the second a pair range.

High cardedness

A 9 4

This flop offers no drawing possibilities. It hits a strong range hard – will have pair or better 65 % of the time.

Perfect to c-bet bluff on.

K 9 4

Hits a strong range well – will have a pair or better 60 % of the time.

Perfect to c-bet bluff on.

K Q 8

Hits a strong range very well – will have pair or better 77 % of the time.

Perfect to c-bet bluff on.

A K J

Hits a strong range completely – will have pair or better 100 % of the time.

Good to c-bet on.

Pairedness

J 8 8

A strong range will have pair or better 56 % of the time.

Good to c-bet bluff against drawing range. But you might get called quite a lot from the paired range, since they will know many players c-bet bluff on this flop. If you do bluff you should probably be prepared to fire a second and possibly a third barrel depending on opponent.

9 4 4

A strong  range will have pair or better 35 % of the time. The drawing range will have pair or better 55 % of the time.

Bad for c-bets against both ranges with the strong range in this example. However, a very strong range is good to c-bet with. For example a 5 % range will have a pair or better 50 % of the time and the rest of the time two overcards which might improve to become best hand.

Garbage

9 5 2

Strong range will have pair or better 37% of the time. Drawing range will have pair or better 66 % of the time.

Bad for c-betting. Opponent will have something more often than the strong range – and they know it does not hit the strong range well.

Suitedness

05Aug

Preflop Strategy – 4-Betting and All-In

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When someone has 3-Bet you should normally first consider raising or folding. Sometimes it can be more profitable to call the 3-Bet, see 3-Betting for more information about circumstances.

With the light 3-Betting that is going on in modern online poker you need a strategy to counter that. The best way to do this is normally to introduce some light 4-betting.

First of all, if someone is 3-Betting you with a wide range of hands, you can add more hands to your 4-Betting for value hands. If someone is 3-Betting you with a 14% range you can 4-Bet with a 7% range since that range will be ahead of your opponents in average.

4-Betting light

I use a similar strategy for 4-Betting light as I do for 3-Betting light. First of all, estimate the percentage of times opponent will fold to a 4-Bet in the particular situtation (calling rarely  happens unless the stacks are deep). Since opponent is almost always shoving or folding you do not need to consider position when 4-Betting.

I will not 4-Bet light if opponent is folding less than 75%. This means that an opponent who shoves with AA, KK and AK needs to be 3-Betting more  than 8 % for me to add any bluffs at all (since AA, KK, AK is 2 % of all hands).

  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet < 75 % – only bet for value
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet 75% – 80% – add 25 % of bluffs
  • Opponents folds to 3-Bet  80-85 % – add 50 % of bluffs
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet 85-90% – add 100% bluffs
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet > 90 % – bluff with any two

When 4-Betting light you do not need to consider the playability of the hand so it won’t matter what hands you include as bluffs – since you will always fold your bluffs to a shove (unless the effective stack size is short).

To keep things simple I use the same hands as when 3-Betting light:

I will add bluffs starting with JTs-54s (2%), then J9s-64s (2%) and then JTo-54o (6%).

Regardless of what hands you choose to add to your light 4-betting I recommend having predefined hands since there is otherwise a risk you start overdoing it when you get excited seeing someone who folds 85% of the time. If you start 4-Betting too much it will soon be noticed by either the player you are attacking or by other players and they can start exploiting this. Occasionally you can of course do it with other hands because of game dynamics, but be careful not to overdo it.

Raise size

The raise size of your 4-Bets should be 2,25 – 2,5 times the size of the 3-Bet AND your target should be that the money you have put in the pot after the 4-bet is about 25%  – 30 % of the effective stack size.

If you 4-Bet to a smaller amount, let’s say 2 times the size of the 3-Bet, opponent will get good odds to call:

Example: You play $0,5 – 1 and raise to 3. Opponent on the button 3-Bets to 9 and you min-raise to 18. The pot is now 28,5 and opponent has 9 to call. This will give odds of over 3:1 on the call which can make calling profitable with most cards (depending your range and tendencies of course).

If you 4-Bet to higher percentage of the effective stack size you will be unable to fold any of the hands you are 4-Betting with. This takes away the opportunity for opponent to shove with weaker hands since he will have no fold equity.

Example: Same as above with effective stack size of 100 big blinds. In this case you decide to raise to 35 instead of 18. If opponent decides to shove you will be getting odds of 2:1 on calling. In this scenario you would be getting correct odds to call with 65s if opponent raises with AA-QQ, AK and AQ – but you would not be happy.

All-in

Calling all-ins

When you are considering calling an all-in you mainly consider what your opponents range is and what your pot odds are. Sometimes you also need to consider game dynamics (for example putting people on tilt – or keeping a fish in the game). In tournaments you should also consider your skill advantage and bubble effect (you want to avoid getting broke when there are bubble effects in the play). And of course if there is players left to act – in which case you should normally only call a normal stack all-in with AA, KK and possibly AK and QQ.

Here’s how to decide whether to call an all-in or fold based on opponents range of hands and the pot odds:

Pot odds Part of opponents range you can call with

6:5                  Half their range

3:2                  2/3 of their range

2:1                  Double their range

3:1                 Any two against any range

Please note that this table assumes there is no bubble effects into play – if there is you need to tighten up your calling ranges  (and open up your raising ranges). Bubble effects are always present in Sit and Go’s and become noticeable in MTT’s when you are getting close to the money.

With 6:5 odds you need to win the hand > 45 % to make a call profitable.

With 3:2 odds you need to win the hand > 40 % to make a call profitable.

With 2:1 odds you need to win the hand > 33 % to make a call profitable.

With 3:1 odds you need to win the hand > 25 % to make a call profitable.

Moving all-in

04Aug

Preflop Strategy – 3-Betting

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When someone has raised before you, you should normally raise or fold. Under some circumstances you can consider cold calling.

You should normally raise if you believe your hand will be better than your opponents in average. This means that your hand should be within the range of the upper half of your opponents range. For example, if you believe opponent is raising with  top 10% of hands your hand should be in the top 5% range. Or if you believe opponents hand is in top 20% range your should be in top 10%.

The size of the raise should normally be 3 times the size of opponents raise. For example, if you are playing $1-2 and opponent has raised to 6 you should 3-Bet to 18.

There are a couple of exceptions:

  • There is a high risk of a 4-Bet and you can not profitably move all-in with your hand. Then it is better to fold.
  • If raiser frequently folds to a 3-Bet, you have the option to 3-Bet light.

If there is a very aggressive 4-Bettor acting behind you or if original raiser is an aggressive 4-Better and your hand is not good enough for all-in you should probably just fold. Let’s say fold if there is someone behind who is 4-Betting > 25% or if original raiser is 4-Betting > 10 %.

3-Betting light

You have a good opportunity to 3-Bet light if opponent is folding a lot to 3-Bets. 3-Betting light means to include bluffs or semi-bluffs to the range you are raising with. There is a lot of debate in the poker community on whether to 3-Bet light with a merged or polarized range. A merged range means just adding more hands from top of range. For example 3-Betting a top 15% range against someone who has raised with a top 20% range.  A polarized range means adding weaker hands as bluffs. My view on this is that I prefer a polarized range. Why?

Let’s take an example. Opponent raises with a top 20% range. He’s calling 3-Bets 20 % of the time and 4-Betting 3%. Would you prefer adding KJs to your range or 98s? I prefer 98s for two reasons:

  • KJs will often be dominated by hands like AK or AJ. You are risking winning small pots and lose bigger pots. There will be no hands in opponents calling range that are dominated by your hand (unless he calls 3-Bet a lot – in which case I don’t recommend 3-Betting light).
  • If you are making this move rarely the 98s hand will not be totally expected by opponent which means you can win a big pot.

However, I guess it is also a matter of personal taste since KJs has 43% equity against opponents range in this example and 98s has only 34%.

When opponent 4-Bets it doesn’t matter which of these hands you are holding since both are clear folds of course.

Here is my default strategy for 3-Betting light:

  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet < 75 % – only bet for value
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet 75% – 80% – add 25 % of bluffs
  • Opponents folds to 3-Bet  80-85 % – add 50 % of bluffs
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet 85-90% – add 100% bluffs
  • Opponent folds to 3-Bet > 90 % – bluff with any two

If I am in the blinds I take it down two notches since I will be out of position if opponent calls – and they call much more often in this situation. Meaning for example, if opponent folds to 3-Bet 85% – 90% I will add 25% bluffs.

If it is a squeeze situation (one or more callers before you) it take it up one notch since it is tougher for original raiser to call and the callers usually don’t have a top notch hand. Meaning for example if raiser folds to 3-Bet 75%-80% I add 50% bluffs.

The fold to 3-Bet percentages above should be taken as the likelihood that opponent will fold in this hand – not his general stats. For example if you have 3-Bet an 80-85 % folder three times in a session and once shown 87s he will be much more likely to fight back the next time you raise him. In this scenario you should consider tightening your value range rather than thinking about more bluffs.

I will add bluffs starting with JTs-54s (2%), then J9s-64s (2%) and then JTo-54o (6%).

Examples of 3-betting light

1. Opponent raises with 20% and you expect him to fold 80% – 85%.

3-Bet for value 10% and add 5% bluffs (50 % of the 10% range). In this case I would add JTs-54s + J9s-64s.

2. Opponent raises with 30% and you expect him to fold 75% – 80%.

3-Bet for value 15% and add 4% bluffs (25 % of the 15% range). In this case I would also add JTs-54s + J9s-64s.

Calling 3-Bets

If out-of-position, you should almost always 4-Bet or fold. Only exceptions are:

  • Opponent is very bad
  • The 3-bet is small enough or opponent bad enough to give you correct implied odds
  • Occasionally with AA or KK against an opponent who 3-bets wide, is aggressive postflop and folds a lot to 4-bets. If he is good and your are playing each other often you need to balance with some other hand(s) as well.

If in-position you should 4-Bet or fold most of the time also. The exceptions above still applies and some additional ones:

  • Sometimes call with AA-99 and JTs-87s if opponent is predictable and folds too much on the flop or on the turn. If you call with these hands you need to bluff fairly often on good boards in order to not lose money on this

04Aug

Preflop Strategy – Someone has raised

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What hands should you be playing and how should you play them when someone has raised the pot?

Most of the time you either decide to fold or to reraise (3-Bet). Normally you base this decision on whether you believe you have a stronger hand in average than your opponent. If you for example believe your opponent is raising with a 10% range you will have a better hand in average if your hand is within a 5% range and you should normally raise. If you have a hand that is better than opponents worse hands, but worse than his average, for example a hand that is at the bottom of 7 % range you should normally fold.

But sometimes it can be more profitable to call or 3-Bet light.

No callers in pot yet

You will rarely be able to call based on implied odds alone, but here is are two scenarios when that can be profitable:

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with pocket pair against one likely opponent based on implied odds:

  • call if opponent is a TAG on a very narrow range (max 5 %) and is likely to be willing to stack off with overpair or top-pair and effective stack size is at least 20 times the call amount or
  • call if opponent is a maniac and effective stack size is at least 20 times the call amount.

Sometimes the combined implied odds, having a winning hand without hitting a set and the opportunity to win the hand by bluffing can make it profitable to call also.

Rule-of-thumb: Call on the button with pocket pair and suited connectors JTs-56s:

  • Opponent is passive, afraid postflop and has at least 20% range and unlikely to fold to a 3-Bet

If not all of this is true it is generally better to fold or to raise.

Some ideas on how to read opponent stats to decide this:

  • Passive if Aggression Factor is below 2
  • Afraid postflop if WTSD (Went-to-Showdown) is max 23 % over at least 300 hands
  • Unlikely to fold to 3-Bet if fold to 3-Bet is less than 70%.

One or several players have called ahead of you

In this case you should make the call based on Implied Odds alone since you will have limited opportunity to win by having a pair or bluffing. Here you will also normally consider 3-Betting first rather than calling. But if a 3-Bet does not seem like a good idea you can consider calling under the following circumstances.

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with pocket pair against several likely opponents based on implied odds:

  • call if raiser is TAG on narrow range (max 10 %) and at least one person has called before you and effective stack size between raiser and you is at least 20 times the call amount and risk of squeeze is max 10% or
  • call if at least one of the other callers is a fish willing to commit a lot with a weak holding or
  • call if at least two persons has called before you and risk of squeeze is max 10 %

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with suited connectors or suited aces against several opponents based on implied odds:

  • call if raiser is TAG on narrow range (max 10 %) and at least two persons has called before you and effective stack size between raiser and you is at least 20 times the call amount and risk of squeeze is max 10%

03Aug

Implied Odds Preflop

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When you are thinking about calling a raise with a hand that is not likely to be ahead of your opponents in average you need to think about your implied odds. This means that you should think about how much you will likely win in average when you hit a good hand.

You can of course sometimes also win with these hands without hitting a monster. Most of the time either by having a pair when your opponent has nothing or by bluffing. More on that in Preflop Strategy – Someone has raised where we look at scenarios were you have addition equity on top of the Implied Odds.

There is an old rule-of-thumb for this situation called the rule of 5-10. This might have worked in the less competent poker games a couple of years ago, but that needs an update.

The rule of 5-10 say that if the effective stack sizes are less than 10 times the amount for the call you should fold. If it is more than 20 times the amount for the call you should call. If it is somewhere in between you should think. Simple enough, but not good enough unfortunately, as people are getting better and better at poker – and few players nowadays will stack off with an overpair or a TPTK (top-pair, top kicker).

So here are my suggestions:

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with pocket pair against one likely opponent based on implied odds:

  • call if opponent is a TAG on a very narrow range (max 5 %) and is likely to be willing to stack off with overpair or top-pair and effective stack size is at least 20 times the call amount or
  • call if opponent is a maniac and effective stack size is at least 20 times the call amount.

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with pocket pair against several likely opponents based on implied odds:

  • call if raiser is TAG on narrow range (max 10 %) and at least one person has called before you and effective stack size between raiser and you is at least 20 times the call amount and risk of squeeze is max 10% or
  • call if at least one of the other callers is a fish willing to commit a lot with a weak holding or
  • call if at least two persons has called before you and risk of squeeze is max 10 %

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with suited connectors against one likely opponent based on implied odds:

  • don’t

Rule-of-thumb: Calling with suited connectors or suited aces against several opponents based on implied odds:

  • call if raiser is TAG on narrow range (max 10 %) and at least two persons has called before you and effective stack size between raiser and you is at least 20 times the call amount and risk of squeeze is max 10%

Important note: here I talk about calls made more or less only based on Implied Odds. The decision might be different when you consider winning by bluffing or by hitting a mediocre hand. See Preflop Strategy – Someone has raised for more discussion about that.

Examples with Implied Odds Preflop

You hold a pocket pair – Set Mining. Your chance of hitting a set on the flop is 7,5 – 1.

This means that you need to be able to win 7,5 times the amount called in average when you hit a set (for the moment simplifying by assuming you don’t win unless you hit the set and you always win when you hit, see below).

Let’s take a deeper look at what that means with an example.

Let’s say you are playing $0,5 / 1 and someone has raised to 3. You call. The pot is now 7,5. Opponent bets 5 on the flop. You call. The pot is now 17,5. Opponent bets 13 on the turn and you call. The pot is now 43,5. On the river opponent checks and fold to your bet. In this example you win slightly less than 7,5 – 1. The situation will be similar if you raise on the flop instead of calling and opponent checks on the turn and folds to a bet. Sometimes opponent will call bet of half the pot on the river in which case it has netted you $43. But this will surely not happen the times they don’t even have a pair.

It is easy to see that it is rarely correct to call with a pocket pair against a single opponent unless he is particularly willing to put a lot of money in the pot with a semi-strong hand (based on implied odds for hitting a set alone).

Assume his 5 % range is AA-99, AK, AQ. Exactly what a 5 % range consists of varies from opponent to opponent, but this is a common top-5% range. This opponent will have an overpair or a strong pair by the turn about 40% of the time. But some boards will be so scary that he will not commit. Let’s assume he is willing to commit 30% of the time and the rest of the time will only bet one barrel and fold to resistance:

0,3*60 + 0,7*9,5) –  = 25

This is slightly more than the 7,5*3 which is needed for call to be profitable on implied odds alone. This scenario would be similar if he has 3-bet and you call. Let’s assume you bet 3 and he raises to 9. If he misses he is only willing to pay one barrel – let’s assume he bets 14 on the flop. In this scenario you consider calling 6 big blinds and you need to win in average $48 the times you hit your set.

0,3*120 + 0,7*26,5 = 54

Which makes it profitable to call. If the same opponent only has 100 big blinds (less than 20 times the call amount of 6) the call is 0 in EV – meaning it doesn’t matter if you fold or call.

Let’s assume the same opponent on a 10 % range consisting of AA-22, AK, AQ, AJ, KQs. Now he will have an overpair or a strong pair by the turn about 15 % of the time. Sometimes he will have a fairly strong pair and be willing to commit 2 bets. For simplicity let’s assume he commits about 15% of the time and only pays one barrel  85% of the time.

0,15*100 + 0,85*9,5 = 23

This is almost enough, but not quite – even assuming he will commit 100 big blinds. And you rarely know for sure what an opponents range will be in a certain situation AND that he really will be willing to commit with a semi-strong hand. So to compensate for this uncertainty the guidance recommends a 5 % range as max.

Let’s take a look at another opponent, a competent but aggressive TAG who is often willing to double-barrel bluff. But not willing to stack off with only a pair. Let’s assume he bets 3 preflop, 5 on the flop, 10 on the turn and calls 12 on the river with TPTK or overpair. Let’s assume he C-bets on the turn 75 % of the times when he has a weakish hand and folds to a bet the other 25 %.  Let’s assume he calls the river bet with TPTK or overpair 100% of the time (reasonable since the bet is only 1/3 of the pot).

5 % range:

0,3*31,5 + 0,7(0,75*19,5 + 0,25 * 9,5) = 9 + 10 + 2 = 21

This is not enough to make a call profitable. So advice is to not try set mining against a lone, competent TAG based on implied odds alone, even if he’s very aggressive. The scenario is even worse if he is on a wider range (which he normally is).

There are some exceptions when the stacks are shorter, if the raiser is willing to often stack off when missing the flop. For example if effective stack size is 30 big blinds and opponent will be stacking off most of the time with AK and AQ on missed flops it can be profitable to call if opponent is playing a 5 % range and is willing to stack off 80 % of the time.

The second scenario is much more complicated. There is a risk of losing to flushes and straights, there is a risk that opponent will not C-bet at all etc. But examine one scenario to support the rule-of-thumb:

Opponent is TAG and raise to 3, there is one caller ahead of you. In this scenario opponent has range of 10%, will fire 2 barrels after missing the flop 30% of the time and with TPTK or overpair will call a bet of slightly more than 1/3 of the pot on the river 100% of the time. The other opponent folds on the flop.

0,15*49,5 + 0,85(0,3*29,5 + 0,7*14,5) = 24,5

If we assume that there is a raise behind and you have to fold, it is still (barely) enough to make set mining profitable.

03Aug

Stop limping in unopened pots!

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For some years there has been a heated debate in the poker community – including the top names – about whether it is good to limp in an unopened pot or if it is better to put in a raise.

A couple of years ago the poker community was probably split in half with strong advocates on both sides. But the last year I believe there is more and more consensus that raising is better than limping.

One of the last big names advocating limping unopened pots was Dan Harrington who as late as 2008 advocated it in: Cash Games (How to Win at No-Limit Hold’em Money Games) Vol. 1.

In his last book however, he is not recommending limping unopened pots (not mentioning he was all for it just a year or so ago;-): Harrington on Online Cash Games; 6-Max No-Limit Hold ’em.

I personally stopped limping a couple of years ago after analyzing how the greatest winners in a massive database with many millions of hands played by hundreds of thousands of players played. They pretty much didn’t limp in unopened pots at all – so I stopped doing it to.
In 2010 it is even rarer to see a winning player limping first in.

So why is it not a good thing then? I believe limping in unopened pots is bad for the following reasons:

  • It signals the strength of your hand (not so strong – normally)
  • It makes it easy for people to play against you – their decisions are made easier which is the complete opposite of what you want
  • It invites people to limp behind or raise you – in both cases often with position on you – so you will end up playing pots out of position with a mediocre hand against opponents who will know more about your hand than you do about theirs!
  • You give away the initiative to someone else
  • It makes it extremely difficult to play in an unexploitable way

Sure, some super expert players might be capable of limping unopened pots with a balanced range of hands so they are difficult to exploit by limping behind or raising. But this is extremely difficult, because how you play will have to be very strongly adapted to how the table and the players play. The balance of strong hands versus not so strong will have to be adapted to likelihood of players limping behind, likelihood of raises, implied odds and such. And I believe very few players are capable of doing this in a way that makes it more profitable than just simply raising or folding.

That being said, it is understandable why there was many advocates for limping a couple of years ago when the average poker player was much, much weaker than they are today and much less likely to raise the limpers and much more likely to pay a lot of money with a top-pair against a flush then they are today. If you are lucky to find a table with that bad players at decent stakes today, please let me know!

03Aug

Preflop Strategy – Limper(s) in pot

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One or several players have called the big blind (limped).

If your hand is good enough so that you would have opened according to Preflop Strategy, you should normally raise. Raise to 3-3,5 times the big blind plus one big blind for each limper. For example, if there are two limpers and you normally raise to 3 times the big blind, you should raise to 5 times the big blind. A couple of years ago it was a good strategy to raise with a wider range of hands than you would open with since you would often win the hand immediately, or be likely to get heads-up with position on a poor player. However, in today’s poker most other players at the table will be very much aware of what range you are raising with and might take advantage of you if you overdo it.

If your hand is not good enough to open with you should almost always fold.

If your hand is good enough to open but plays well in in multiway pots (pair or suited connectors) you can consider calling (limping behind) instead of raising sometimes. Most of the time it is better to raise, but you should consider the circumstances:

It is usually better to raise if:

  • A raise is likely to win the pot immediately
  • A raise will likely isolate (play heads up) a poor player who either is likely to fold to a continuation bet or who is likely to stack off with a semi-strong hand like top-pair or overpair.

It is sometimes better to call behind if:

  • You are in late position (button or cut-off) or in the small blind and there is a reasonable chance you win a big pot if you hit a strong hand
  • There are several limpers and raising will likely chase some of them away but is unlikely to win the pot immediately
  • Is is somewhat likely that one or several of the limpers actually have a strong hand, for example someone limping in early position who seems to be positionally aware or someone who is normally raising unopened pots or someone who loves to limp with aces
  • It is likely to be a multiway pot or
  • You will have good implied odds if someone decides to raise (it is usually not profitable to 4-Bet when you have first limped behind someone)

The reason to only do this in late position is that you otherwise have an increased risk that someone will raise with a good hand and that you invite players to limp behind with similar hands as your – in which case they will have position on you.

It is likely to become a multiway pot if it is unlikely that someone will raise (uncommon situation in most online games today) or that if someone raise one or several of the limpers will call the raise.

You might get good enough implied odds against a raiser if he/she is likely to be willing to pay a lot with a semi-strong hand like top-pair or overpair. Read Preflop Implied Odds for guidance on how to judge if the implied odds are good enough.

In summary, you should raise or fold most of the time when there are limpers in the pot unless the conditions are unfavorable for raising but favorable for an overlimp. Also keep in mind that you give away more information about your hand when you are overlimping, since you raise with your strong hands most of the time (same balancing issues as for limping in unopened pots).