Mixing Up your raises

In Dan Harrington's Harrington on Holdem I he writes that a good multitable player mixes up his raises. He advocates raising 3x the Big Blind 35% of the time, 4x the Big Blind 35% of the time, and 15% for 2x and 5x the BB in order to keep your opponents guessing.

Is there a certain situation where 2x the BB is the right play? We always discuss the 2x the BB raise as a donktastic play.

Should this be used on occasion and where?

The only thing I could think of is when you have Aces on the button and a weak player in the SB and a loose one in the BB.

[Percussion]

Blinds 50/100 and I have 1200-800 in my stack, and I hold AA or KK and the blinds are clueless chip-spewers. I like the double there.

Sometimes I also double when the window pops up and I was clicking sometihing else, but I don't think Harrington had that in mind.

Also, if you are in a tournament with deep stacks and there are alot of limpers, you might double an 88 or KJs to mix things up, although I do this incredibly rarely!

[Sam T.]

Harrington is making a number of assumptions that don't hold true for most of us: First, his opponents are paying attention, many of ours are not, so any sort of deception is minimal at best. Second, since he plays the same people all the time, he has to vary his raises not only over the course of a particular session, but over multiple tournaments. Again, we don't usually have that problem.

As for the use of the min-raise, IMO the only time it is a good idea is when the blinds are high enough that simply calling it would tie your opponents to the pot. In this situation, the message is the same whether you raise 2, 3 or 5BB: "If you call this bet, you are playing for your stack."

I don't know if this makes sense...

[FishInAPhoneBooth]

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As for the use of the min-raise, IMO the only time it is a good idea is when the blinds are high enough that simply calling it would tie your opponents to the pot. In this situation, the message is the same whether you raise 2, 3 or 5BB: "If you call this bet, you are playing for your stack."

I don't know if this makes sense...

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Makes perfect sense. I don't know why everyone thinks minraising is donktastic when the table is regularly folding to them...

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Sometimes I also double when the window pops up and I was clicking sometihing else, but I don't think Harrington had that in mind.


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One time that happened to me. A guy went all in with KQ, I had 73, I was doing something else, and the box popped up while I was clicking to call his all-in. I ended up winning with a pair of 3s. I felt bad. It was a total accident.

[Sam T.]

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As for the use of the min-raise, IMO the only time it is a good idea is when the blinds are high enough that simply calling it would tie your opponents to the pot. In this situation, the message is the same whether you raise 2, 3 or 5BB: "If you call this bet, you are playing for your stack."

I don't know if this makes sense...

[/ QUOTE ]

Makes perfect sense. I don't know why everyone thinks minraising is donktastic when the table is regularly folding to them...

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On a related note I almost included in the original post, Fossilman has pointed out that the best size for a bet to steal the blinds is the smallest that will do the job. If the blinds are weak-tight, then min-raise away. The problem is that most min-raises give the blinds correct odds to call with a wide range of hands. But if they don't know that...

[Dave D]

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The only thing I could think of is when you have Aces on the button and a weak player in the SB and a loose one in the BB.

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A minraise in that situation is the biggest tell ever of a good hand.

You should basically never min raise until the end of a tourney because doing so gives the blinds the correct odds to call.

[FishInAPhoneBooth]

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A minraise in that situation is the biggest tell ever of a good hand.

You should basically never min raise until the end of a tourney because doing so gives the blinds the correct odds to call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats the precise reason I like to do it. So many people think "uh oh, min raise must be aces..." Well I don't know wtf they are thinking but they fold all the same.

ya mixing up your raises only applies mainly to what Sam T. illustrated.. You can also raise the same way all the time which makes it easier if people are watching you, then they couldn't ever tell what you have. Some people advocate to raise more with your Mid PP to take down the blinds, but in micro or small tourneys, people who will call a 3XBB bet will also call a 4-5XBB bet so I haven't found a good use for mixing up my bets even if my players aren't paying attention.

[Lloyd]

The search function is your friend. And if you've seen how tough it was to find the two posts below you'd understand the humor behind that [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Here are a couple of old threads that talk about this:

Harrington on Raising
NL Pre-Flop Raising Theories

I didn't re-read these but if you think they are really valuable let me know.