Preflop Strategy and Starting Hands

After 2 callers limp in from early position, you limp in from middle position with AK offsuit. Everyone else folds to the button, who also limps in. The Small Blind also calls, and the Big Blind checks. The flop comes down a beautiful 2 K 7 rainbow; the perfect flop for AK. Everyone checks to you, and because there are no draws out there to worry about, you bet out only half the pot. The button folds without a second thought, but to your surprise, the Small Blind calls.

Then all hell breaks loose when the Big Blind raises 4 times your bet. Now you're facing a potentially troublesome situation. The Big Blind could be bluffing (though not likely with a check-raise maneuver, it is possible that someone may use this technique as a bluff), he could be getting over-excited with his K4 in the hole, or he could even have the worst starting hand in Texas Hold 'em: 2 7 offsuit. If the last option is the case, then he just flopped a lucky two pair against your one pair, and you're in pretty bad shape in this hand.

And that's just one big problem. The Small Blind may also be a problem. He checked and only called. He did not bet out or raise. The check-and-call is often the sign of a player on a draw, but there are no possible draws on this board, so it's more likely that this player may be trapping you. Perhaps he hit a set if he's got pocket deuces. Since he was getting 11 to 1 pot odds to call preflop, he could realistically have any given two cards: 22, 77, K7, K2, 72.

Of course this is a hypothetical situation, but similar to many situations that poker players have faced or will face at some point in their poker career. But don't worry too much; this situation can be avoided. The trick to avoiding these types of scary and sometimes expensive scenarios is a simple technique known as the preflop raise.

A preflop raise, simply defined, is a raise that a poker player makes after being dealt their hole cards and before the flop is dealt. The preflop raise is a way of alerting other players that you have a strong hand, like Aces or Kings. Not that you always will necessarily have these starting hands when you raise preflop, but it will make other players stop and think that you might before they decide to put a large portion of their own money into the pot. Often, this is enough to scare most players out of the hand, and you'll likely only be called by one or sometimes maybe two other opponents with decent strength hands of their own. This will usually eliminate the worry in the above mentioned scenario because the blinds would not have been likely to call your preflop raise with a hand like 27, K4, or K2.


The Advantages to the Preflop Raise

Advantages to preflop raising are many. One advantage is that you narrow the field. Playing against one other player in the hand is always simpler than playing in a multiway pot. You only have to figure out what one player is holding versus trying to figure out many hands. The more players there are in a hand, the higher the odds of being outdrawn by an opponent become.

Another advantage is that when you let off a preflop raise, you give your opponent or opponents the impression that you have Pocket Aces. So in a situation where you raise with AK and miss the flop, you can follow through with a continuation bet after the flop. Since your opponents realize that you could very realistically have a big overpair, they'll fold to you roughly 70% ( the percentage of the time a player misses the flop with 2 unpaired hole cards) of the time.

Still another advantage to the preflop raise, is that it gives you a better idea of the range of possible starting hands that your opponent may be holding. For example, if he does have AA or KK, he'll likely re-raise you before the flop. You can then fold hands like AK, AQ, or JT and save yourself some chips. If they do call you, you can be reasonably sure that they may have certain types of starting hands and are unlikely to have other holdings.


The Disadvantages of the Preflop Raise

Preflop raising can work to your disadvantage if you are too predictable about it. If you only raise with Aces, a player may call you with anything just for the opportunity to hit a set, 2 pair, a straight, or a flush and take your whole chipstack. Of course if they miss the flop, they'll just throw their hand away and not pay you off. Limiting preflop raising to only big pairs will typically end up in either winning small pots or losing large ones when your opponents catch on to what you're doing.

Raising out of position can lead to big problems when you get alot of callers. Also, raising with marginal hands can result in catastrophic losses if you can't control bluffing off your stack or being trapped by a player with a better starting hand.


Effective Preflop Raising

The most effective way to utilize the preflop raise is to use it sparingly. That's not to say that you should only raise with big pairs, but you should take all of the factors at the table into consideration before deciding whether or not to raise. Consider the following before raising:

Your own table image - If you just caught a couple of big starting hands and raised the last couple of times out, another preflop raise here isn't usually going to be effective. Other players will believe that you are simply trying to bully the table, and will likely call you down or fight back with a re-raise of their own.

The image of the other players in the hand - If the player in the Big Blind never folds to a raise, no matter what kind of rags he's holding, then the purpose of the preflop raise has been eliminated, unless your only goal is to get lots of money into the pot.

Your hand strength - If you raise with raggedy starting hands, you're likely to get beat by someone with a bigger hand. The higher winning percentage hands you raise with, the more profitable the play will become over the long haul.

Your position in relation to the button - As a general rule of thumb, the weaker your table position is, the stronger your starting hand should be to raise with. When you have superior position, you can effectively raise with a wider variety of hands including suited connectors, one gappers, weak aces, and other suited cards.

As a rule, I will always (well maybe only 99% of the time) raise if I am the first player to enter a pot. This serves multiple purposes. If there are already a lot of limpers ahead of me, a preflop raise will often still end up getting called by multiple players, making a difficult multiway pot. At that point I can seriously re-evaluate my hand and determine how good of a chance this thing really has of winning in a multiway pot. If it's less likely to win, I'm more likely to throw it away. Additionally, this strategy helps me to throw away weaker drawing hands from out of position. If I'm afraid to throw a raise out there, it's usually a sign that my hand and position is weak and I should just toss my cards into the muck.

When I do raise with a drawing hand, such as a suited connector or a suited Ace, I improve my chances of either winning the blinds preflop or being able to set good prices for myself if I do hit a draw, because it will be done from position. Typically though, I like to wait to play my drawing hands against multiple opponents because I'll end up with better pot odds to draw to, so in those situations, since I'm not the first to enter the pot, I can go ahead and limp in.

By always raising when I'm first in, I tend to play tighter and throw more hands away when I take a 2nd look at them and say, "Nah! If it's not good enough to raise with, it's not good enough to play." Also, I don't fall into the trap of only raising with big pairs and becoming predictable to my opponents. Since I stick to a tight aggressive game, my raises are respected and feared. After all, am I raising with 78 suited just because everyone else folded, or am I really holding Aces? It's enough to make opponents a little nervous.

Click here to view some general Texas Hold em poker starting hands charts. The charts are down at the bottom of that page.