Choosing Raise Sizes and Planning Hands in No Limit Holdem Tournaments
If you know you are going to play a hand in a No Limit Holdem tournament or sit-n-go, it is important to plan your hand preflop. Choosing a raise size is the most important part of planning a hand in No Limit Holdem. There are several things to consider when choosing a preflop raise size.
Stack size: the size of your stack, the stacks of the players who have entered the pot, and the stack size of the players have yet to act
Consider the size of the stacks compared to the blinds and the other players in the tournament: what is your situation in the tournament? Are you desperate or do you have a big stack? What about your opponents? What is their situation in the tournament?
The range and tendencies of your opponents
If someone has already entered the pot, it is important to consider how your hand compares to their range. Are they loose or tight? Passive or aggressive? If there are players left to act behind you, are they loose or tight, passive or aggressive? How does their situation and stack size affect their range?
History, context, and expectation
What has happened so far? What do you expect to happen? For example, let’s say you have a decent hand on the button like K9s, and the blinds have been loose and aggressive. You expect one of them to reraise if you raise, but you cannot really call a reraise with your hand, so you should not raise even if your hand has equity against their range.
Intuition and poker
Intuition is an important part of poker decisions. Your gut feel for a situation is more important than Poker Tracker stats or generic poker strategy taught in books. Always go with your read and instincts.
After considering all the above factors, it is time to plan your hand and choose the correct raise size. Here are some different raise sizes used in No Limit Holdem and some examples of when to use them and why.
The Min Raise
A minimum raise risks as few chips as possible while still giving you a chance to win the blinds or thin the field. This raise size is best for when you do not want to commit all your chips until you see the flop or make a strong hand. This raise size works well in the early stages with hands like AQ or 88. In the early stages of a tournament it is best not to play big pots until you have a big hand. By keeping the pot small, you also have some room to make a continuation bet without losing much of your stack if it doesn’t work.
In the middle and late stages, the min raise is a good way to try to steal the blinds without getting pot committed against an all in reraise from a short stack or aggressive player behind you.
If you do use the min raise to steal the blinds, it is important to vary your play by occasionally min raising premium hands so that your opponents do not figure out that you are weaker when you min raise.
The drawback to the min raise is that it gets called most often.
Raising 2.5 Times the Big Blind
This raise is used for many of the same reasons as the min raise, except that it wins the blinds slightly more often. It is also safer to do this raise with your big hands like AA or KK, because it costs your opponents a little more to see a flop to try to crack your hand. Depending on your stack size, this raise will also not commit you too the pot, and might allow you to make a continuation bet (cbet) without getting pot committed.
Raising Three Times the Big Blind
This raise will build a fairly large pot. It looks fairly strong, so proceed with caution if you encounter resistance after raising 3x.
Depending on your stack size compared to the blinds, a 3x raise may be large enough to commit you to the pot. Pot commitment is a very important concept when planning hands in No Limit Holdem. The general rule of pot commitment is that if your raise gets called and the resulting pot is close to the size of your stack, then you are pot committed.
Example: You have 1000 chips and the big blind (BB) is 100. you have AQ and raise 3x to 300. The button calls you and the blinds fold, so the pot is 750 and you have 700 chips left. You are pot committed - you must go all in no matter what the flop comes. The only exception would be if you flop a strong hand and the board is not too draw heavy (such as A72 rainbow) and a check might induce a bluff from your opponent.
The 3x raise is also good for stealing if your opponents are agro and tend to interpret smaller raises as weakness. By sticking to a 3x raise, you make it hard for them to judge the strength of your hand.
The drawback to a 3x raise is that if you are reraised and you have to fold, you could have saved some chips by making a smaller raise.
Making a Pot Sized Raise
A pot sized raise is most often used for building a big pot because you plan on committing. In the early stages, it should only be dome with big pairs. In the middle and later stages of a tournament, it is used to create a commitment situation.
Raising 1/3 of your Stack
This is a handy raise size for the middle and late stages of a tournament, when you plan on going all in if called no matter what the flop is. By raising 1/3 of your stack, you are committing yourself to the hand preflop.
The only drawback is if you have position (perhaps your raise was called by the big blind) and you completely miss the flop, and your opponent shoves first because they got to act first. Be very careful if you consider folding here, because if you have any outs then chances are it would be wrong to fold. Consider your opponents tendencies, and be more inclined to continue against a loose aggressive player than a tight or passive one. To avoid this dilemma, be more inclined to use this raise size from early position, so if you are called you will most likely be first to act so you can execute your all in game plan. If you are in later position and you risk being called by the blinds, use an all in raise instead if you want to commit.
The All In Preflop Raise
Hopefully, you are only using this raise when you want to commit. For online sit n go tournaments, it is best to have a hand that you are happy playing for all your chips with. You want to make sure that you have fold equity and are also ahead of your opponent’s range. Bluffing with an all in raise is a bad idea in today’s online sit n go tournaments. Players are loose and tend to call light, and you will find yourself gambling more than is necessary.
All in in the early stages of a sit n go tip:
Try using the all in reraise early in a sit n go if you have JJ, QQ, or KK and a loose or unknown player has raised. In general, you will get called more often than if you reraise a smaller amount, which looks too scary. The all in raise looks like you don’t want a call, and they will tend to put you on AK or a smaller pair, and they will call with many hands that are way behind to yours. Occasionally, you will run into the few dreaded over-pairs, but many more times you will get called by hands like 99, AQ, AJ, etc. This is a great way to double up early in a tournament. Do not use this tactic against a tight player, you will lose too much value.
Stack to Pot Ration in No Limit Holdem Tip:
Unless you have a big pair, avoid choosing a preflop raise size that leaves you with a stack to pot ratio (SPR) of 2, where your remaining stack is twice the pot. If you have unpaired big cards like AK or KJ, you will miss the flop 2/3 of the time. If you have a medium pair like 88, there will be overcards to your pair on many flops. With an SPR of 2, you are in a very awkward situation, because you cannot make a continuation bet without putting most of your stack in. if you make a cbet and you are raised, you would be putting in the rest of your chips beaten. Therefore, plan your hand ahead of time and choose a raise size that is either smaller or bigger. A smaller raise will allow you to get away from the hand, and a bigger one will make committing easy.
If you do find yourself facing an SPR of around 2, perhaps because a smaller stack called your preflop raise, it is best to avoid making a continuation bet unless you hit the flop. The same idea of pot commitment applies here – if you cbet you would put in too much of your opponent’s stack, and it would commit you to the pot.
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