Raising hell

	When you’ve been raised in a no-limit cash game or tournament, you have to consider what might happen on future betting rounds

Whenever an opponent raises, it’s time to rethink the hand you’re playing. It can sound an alarm or be a cause for joy and celebration. It all depends on whether your opponent’s raise tells you their hand is better than yours. Or, they’re doing just what you hoped for: betting right into your monster hand.

Facing a raise can elicit differing responses – depending on which betting round it occurs – whether you’re playing in a fixed-limit, pot-limit or no-limit cash game, or a tournament. Depending on how you interpret things, there are only three choices once you’ve been raised: you’ll fold, call, or re-raise. That’s it. And if you are playing in a no-limit or pot-limit game and choose to re-raise, you’ll also have to decide how much. Whatever variant you’re playing, you might want to ask certain questions of yourself. They don’t have right or wrong answers; they’re just a set of interrogatories guiding you toward a decision at the table.

• How much do I like my hand? Did I bet a big hand, a draw, or did I bet simply because I had position on my opponent and figured I could win the pot right there and then?

• Who’s my opponent? It’s not necessarily a cause for alarm if you’re raised by a lone opponent acting after you. It’s more serious when someone raises after two or three others have already entered the pot. How many players are left to act? A raise from the button smacks of larceny, but a raise from early position – with a number of players still to act – usually signifies a strong hand.

• Is the prize worth the game? Pot odds – or huge implied odds if the pot odds are not there – must offset the odds against making your hand, to make the chase worthwhile.

LIMIT

A raise on the flop in a fixed-limit game can mean your opponent has a good hand, but if they have a great hand, you’ll probably face a raise on the turn, when bets double. A raise on the flop can also be a semi-bluff from a player on a draw who hopes to get some more money in the pot. In this case, your opponent will also be satisfied if you fold and they win the pot right there.

Raising may also be an attempt to obtain a free card on a more expensive betting round. A player who raises on the flop, but can’t get his opponents to fold, will hope they all check the turn, so he can check too and take a free card. That free card may enable him to draw out on his opponents at half the price he would have paid by calling a small bet on the flop and another, bigger bet on the turn.

KEY POINT 1

If an opponent raises on the flop, he may be signalling that he has a good hand already – or he could be on a draw and semi-bluffing

A raise on the turn usually means your opponent likes his hand and deferred raising until the betting limits doubled. This is a dangerous time for you and you will need to be very wary of what is in front of you. If you know nothing at all about your opponent – you’ve never played against him before and have no read on him whatsoever – and he raises on the turn, the message in this bottle is pretty clear: it is likely he has a strong hand that can beat top pair/top kicker. You should save your ammunition for another battle, unless you have a much better hand than that.

KEY POINT 2

If he raises on the turn, where the bets double, your opponent most likely has a very strong hand

Bluff-raising on the turn is uncommon in fixed-limit games, with the exception of five or six-handed online games, where they are quite common. But I’m talking full games here, not the short-handed variety. A raise on the river can never be a semi-bluff; there are no more cards to come and all hands are fully realised once the final card is dealt. A raise on the river typically comes from someone who has been helped by the river card. Players holding a big, made hand prior to the river usually raise on the turn.

But a river raise can also be a bluff; most of the time this comes from someone whose drawing hasn’t improved. This player can only win by bluffing. Tracking betting patterns and analysing them against the cards that were dealt should help you determine when you’re confronting someone who bet with nothing more than a busted flush and a handful of hope.

The only time this analysis is likely to fail is when the river card either pairs your opponent’s kicker or connects with a pocket pair to complete a set. Assessing an opponent’s betting patterns against the cards that were dealt helps clarify whether the river card helped them. If the river card is a 5 – and the flop is 8-Q-K – how likely is your opponent to play his underpair into all of the betting and raising that’s likely to take place with three playable cards on the board?

KEY POINT 3

A raise on the river may mean he has been helped by the last card or it could be a complete bluff – however it is never a semi-bluff because there are no more cards to come

NO-LIMIT

Cash games

When you’ve been raised in a no-limit cash game or tournament, you have to broaden your perspective and consider what might happen on future betting rounds. If you call a raise on the flop, what do you suppose will happen on the turn? If your hand doesn’t improve significantly, what are you going to do when your adversary makes another – even bigger – wager on the next betting round?

If you don’t catch lightning in a bottle, you might have to play for all your chips before the hand’s end. The fact your opponent can decide how much they want to bet gives them the ability to price you off your draws by forcing you to call a bet that does not provide pot odds large enough to make it profitable to draw to a straight or flush. If the pot was not raised before the flop, any community card can help your opponent. Since no-limit hold’em is really a game of implied odds, players will take inexpensive flops anytime in the belief they can make you play for all your chips if they get lucky. That innocuous 3 on the flop can provide an opponent with a set, and along with it, a chance to win someone’s entire stack.

In a fixed-limit game, the implied odds are just not there and the majority of players throw away small pairs, unless they are in late position in an unraised pot.

KEY POINT 4

Calling a raise on the flop in a no-limit cash game requires you to think ahead as to what might happen on the turn and the river. Can you afford to take more heat on later streets?

Tournament

An opponent will also price you off your draws in a tournament; it’s even easier than in a cash game because a player who loses a lot of his chips in a tournament will have far less ammunition as the event progresses. Pursuing a draw in a tournament is dicey, unless it’s done when the betting is inexpensive and players have a large number of chips in proportion to the blinds. Later on, the only players risking money on draws are either all-in or, they have such a commanding chip lead that they can afford to take a flyer on a draw in the hope of making a very big hand.

When you’re raised early in a tournament and the blinds are small in relation to your chip stack and those of your adversaries, you can fold to a big raise because a loss might put you out of the event. But later on, when the blinds grow, you’ll have to make a stand with the hand you’ve been dealt, especially if folding leaves you in an extremely vulnerable position.

This is a personal decision. In a small tournament you might want to risk a call for all your chips when you’re already in the money. But, if you’re in the main event at the WSOP and the next notch on the pay ladder is, say $500,000, you might decide to fold and hope a very short- stacked opponent will bust out before you.

KEY POINT 5

If you’re raised in a no-limit hold’em tournament, your decision should be governed by the size of your stack in relation to that of the other players and the level of blinds and antes

You can read Lou Krieger’s blog at www.loukrieger.com