Pre Flop Initiative: Hold'em

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 05 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

Hold'em becomes a much simpler game for you if you try to consistently be the player with the pre flop initiative. It is much harder to beat a player who is constantly picking the right spots to raise and re-raise

Pre flop initiative simply refers to the player that is the last raiser pre flop. Mostly it refers to when a player raises and is called, although it is equally applicable to a player re-raising an opener. The importance of pre flop initiative is never to be underestimated in hold'em, and a full understanding of it is critical to success - particularly at the higher limits, where an ignorance of it will cost you dearly.

Most pots in hold'em will be won by the person with the pre flop initiative. This is simply because most of the time players miss the flop in hold'em, and as a result usually the best hand pre flop (or apparent best hand if the person with the pre flop initiative is bluffing) will continue to be the best hand post flop. As a result, trying to be the person carrying the pre flop initiative is critical to winning enough pots to keep your head above water, and a lack of it puts you at a significant disadvantage against players who understand this.

This concept is particularly obvious in the very highest limit hold'em games, where all the players are constantly trying to gain the pre flop initiative, raising, isolating and re-isolating are all constant occurrences in these games, as the players all struggle to be the player taking the most momentum into the hand. In these sort of games, flat calling before the flop becomes a much less common occurrence than at the lower limits, as players are loathe to not be the player with the pre flop momentum, and instead the game becomes one more based around a pre flop raise/fold style game.

Like most things in poker, pre flop initiative relies heavily on being balanced in order to not become exploitable. If you are going in without the initiative too much you will simply get eaten up by good players post flop; conversely, if you are going in too often with the pre flop initiative, players will simply be able to check raise and float you off too many flops, with the result that you lose too many of your post flop big bets to be profitable.

Hold'em becomes a much simpler game for you if you try to consistently be the player with the pre flop initiative. It is much harder to beat a player who is constantly picking the right spots to raise and re-raise, and a mastery of this concept alone should make you a profitable player in the low stakes games, where a near total ignorance of this concept loses players probably more money than any other poker principle.

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