Tighten Up to a Raise
So you have a playable hand, not great but playable and someone raises the pot in front of you. Here is where a lot of beginning players give away too many of their chips unnecessarily. When someone raises in front of you, you should tighten up your starting hand requirements. Say you are holding A10 suited in middle position and you are prepared to limp in matching the big blind. But before the action is on you, someone raises to 3X the big blind. What do you do?
Well, of course, it depends. You will want to ask yourself what kind of player is the raiser. Does he put in a lot of pre-flop raises? Would he try to steal from that position? But more importantly is a question to ask yourself: Is this hand worth playing in a raised pot? You were ready to limp the A10 but now the pot is raised. Is it worth three times the original bet? You should be playing fewer and better hands after a raise. Is A10s a hand you want to play here?
Yes, you could get bluffed out of some pots by a random steal raise. Yes, you might have flopped good and yes, it does depend. But first a standard guideline: You should tighten up your starting hand requirements facing a pre-flop raise. Not everyone is stealing, not everyone is bluffing. Over the long term, which is how we all should play poker, as one long game. Over the long term, folding marginal hands to a raise is the correct play. Not a rule. Not carved in stone and certainly subject to our read on the raiser but a very solid guideline to long term winning poker.
There are always several options for each hand and pre-flop in a raised pot, one of the very best options is often to fold.
-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #187
