Play a Hand With the Masters #2 Pre-Flop

[betgo]

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I like Foucault's line here. 300 is standard unless I feel that there will be a chance to get my chips in as a big favorite (or even a slight underdog) against an aggressive player yet to act.

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Has anyone considered making a large raise. Say you raise to 400. If you get called by one player, there is 950 in the pot, you have 2300 left, and you may have villain covered. This puts you in good position to push practically any flop or put in a close to pot sized raise and be ready to put in the rest.

[zoobird]

I would raise to 400 myself, but the main thing is to do whatever hero's standard raise is. If I'm re-raised all in by one of the 3 short stacks I call. If I'm me and I'm re-raised all in by any of the others I would call, but if I'm Gigabet and can assume I'm a better player than almost everyone else, I probably fold. I call any smaller re-raises.

[adanthar]

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Do you call or raise? If you raise, to what? Since most players usually raise with AK in this spot, under what scenarios would you just limp and why? If you raise and get re-raised, what's your plan (which obviously could depend on which player re-raises you)?

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I am always raising this to 275 or 300, barring something weird like a maniac behind me that's gonna raise it himself so I can push.

If I get reraised, it depends on the stack size and read I have on the player.

[KramerTM]

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I am always raising this to 275 or 300

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andathar,

I've noticed from reading your bodog 100K thread (which was awesome by the way... hope you post more of these) that you like to raise slightly below 3xBB in these spots. Any reasoning behind this or just a habit? Is it perhaps part of your intention to keep the pots small?

[adanthar]

I got that from Fossilman's posts way back in the day...yes, it's a means of keeping the pot smaller, makes folding to a reraise easier, plus some other things. Search the archives for Greg's post (somebody have the name?)

[ZeroPointMachine]

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I am always raising this to 275 or 300

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andathar,

I've noticed from reading your bodog 100K thread (which was awesome by the way... hope you post more of these) that you like to raise slightly below 3xBB in these spots. Any reasoning behind this or just a habit? Is it perhaps part of your intention to keep the pots small?

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I got that from Fossilman's posts way back in the day...yes, it's a means of keeping the pot smaller, makes folding to a reraise easier, plus some other things. Search the archives for Greg's post (somebody have the name?)


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I also like the smaller raise(225-275). In addition to adanthar's points, I think a smaller raise from UTG tends to represent a monster looking for action and can get folds(or at least calls instead of raises) from tight players with middle pairs.

I would really like to read that Fossilman post if someone finds it.

[Lloyd]

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Do you call or raise? If you raise, to what? Since most players usually raise with AK in this spot, under what scenarios would you just limp and why? If you raise and get re-raised, what's your plan (which obviously could depend on which player re-raises you)?

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I am always raising this to 275 or 300, barring something weird like a maniac behind me that's gonna raise it himself so I can push.

If I get reraised, it depends on the stack size and read I have on the player.

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Ok, I assume the read means that if it's an uber tight player raising you'll fold if not getting very good odds assuming all of the chips go in. Other than that type of a read, how does stack size effect your decision?

[adanthar]

Any of the shorties pushing means my chips go in, obviously.

Otherwise...I think the raise size can be a big tell sometimes. Let's say I'm more likely to fold if a 2300 stack makes it 1000 than I would if a 3K stack did it.

[Nordberg]

I like limping here. You have three stacks behind you that should jam with a pretty large array of hands even after a limper or two. If raised I obviously re-raise all-in.

As silly as it sounds, if the pot remains limped and you flop top pair, you risk going broke against a wide array of hands but you also have an opportunity to double up against a weaker ace that no one would put you on. At this stage of the tournament with our stack I'm willing to take that risk.

Certainly a standard raise is ok too but we have an awkward stack size with which to play AK with after the flop.

[woodguy]

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I like limping here. You have three stacks behind you that should jam with a pretty large array of hands even after a limper or two. If raised I obviously re-raise all-in.

As silly as it sounds, if the pot remains limped and you flop top pair, you risk going broke against a wide array of hands but you also have an opportunity to double up against a weaker ace that no one would put you on. At this stage of the tournament with our stack I'm willing to take that risk.

Certainly a standard raise is ok too but we have an awkward stack size with which to play AK with after the flop.

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I've been taking this line more recently with reasonable success.

It allows for a limp re-raise which represents AA, but if you get called you are usually not dominated, and putting in the last raise is always part of my goal in any hand.

You must be carefull when it gets limped around and you will have to fold TPTK to heavy action, but Ax <K pays you off nicely in a lot of spots.

You also can avoid tying yourself to the pot OOP when you whiff.

I know some guys like Adanthar are good enough not to *always* have to fire a a wiffed flop when they were the PFR, and therefore keep the cost of the hand down, but often AK can cost too much when you are OOP and have more than 1 to act behind you and you feel that you *have* to take a shot on the flop because you were the PFR.

Also, if you do raise PF, get called and hit an A or K you rarely get paid off. If you raise AK PF and hit TPTK and get action you are often beat at this level.

Raising here is fine, but I don't think limping is as bad as many would say. Especially if you are comfortable with your post flop play.

In fact I would go as far as saying if you can play well post flop, you can make just as much (if not more) limping AK in EP as raising, and lose much less.

Regards,
Woodguy