Standardising raises

Poker Strategy / Marcus Bateman / 13 May 2010 / 2 Comments

Many players soon spotted that by doing the exact opposite of this - that is, always raising the same amount - they could make their game much harder to exploit.

Years ago, most players in no limit and pot limit games would vary their bet size roughly in line with the strength of their hand. Even in the books that arguably spawned the modern era of poker, such as Harrington on Hold'em, emphasis was often placed on mixing up raise sizes.

However, many players soon spotted that by doing the exact opposite of this - that is, always raising the same amount - they could make their game much harder to exploit, and understanding why this came into be and its consequences is important for taking your game up a notch.

The key problem that always lay in varying bet sizes (particularly pre flop bet sizes) was that you were always giving some information about the strength of your hand out. Humans are pretty bad when it comes to being truly random, and as a result good players could often ascertain a great deal about your hand no matter how much you tried to vary your play. However, by making your raise sizes all identical, you leave yourself free to make your opponent have to really work to find out your likely holding.

As the bet is always the same, you drastically reduce the chances of giving out excess information. Your opponent has little to go on other than your raising frequency and the odd hand they see at show down, and as a result are denied a primary source of information. As all information in poker is so incredibly important, being able to shut down sources of it is obviously always beneficial to your game.

Standardising your game in certain areas and making it unpredictable in others (such as the type of hand you are raising) can be hugely beneficial in poker, as it both makes your game less predictable, but also easier to manage for you. Betting similar amounts each time can both save you having to try and randomise your game, as well as making you a much tougher opponent - a clear win win situation.

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Comments (2)

1. Yorkshire Pud | 13 May 2010

   I always raise 4xBB when I am playing cash games and have done for as long as I can remember.

   What camp are you in when it comes to raising a standard amount for each position? For example, 4x from early position, 3x in middle position and 2-2.5 from late position

2. Marcus Bateman | 17 May 2010

   I tend to always raise pot pre flop in cash games, unless that table is very tight, when it can be lowered and the raising frequency increased (steal lots more blinds obv). In tournaments it depends muchmore on the structure/stage/table dynamic, but is generally much lower due to the shorter stack sizes being played (2.1 - 2.5X typical).

   Usually I leave the raise size the same but change the range of hands I make raises with instead of mixing up sizes. This is especially useful when multi tabling as it makes life so much easier than varying bets constantly constantly.