As a contribution to SBR, I wanted to begin a little series on some poker concepts I've learned over my 10+ years of playing cards. There will primarily be no-limit principles and novice, but every now and then we'll go over some deeper thinking.
I am by no means the greatest poker player in the world...there are others out there who would humble me...but...I have been a winning player every year I have played.
Why start something like this? I have a difficult time being motivated. The ups and downs of poker have gotten to me to the point where what I win playing poker, even though I enjoy it, don't outweigh the emotional stress. I need to start thinking poker again. I may play against you guys online, but I'll rarely ever play you live or on another site. ...so... With that said,
Discussion is welcome
and with that said, let's begin.
If you asked me what the biggest flaw that SBR players have, I would say their ability to attack limpers. All too often, I observe hands like
Blinds 50/100
Player1 : Call 100
Player2: Call 100
Player3: fold
Player4: (who has KK) Raise 300
Now...without evening knowing anything about the rest of the players, stack size, or anything else involving the hand, there is something wrong here.
We get caught up in the 3x the bb raise, or the (Sb+BB x 2 )raise and don't adjust to the other players in the pot. Raising a standard 300 here just bloats the pot. Let's pretend we are 6 handed. Player 5 in the SB has 250 to speculate on a call and the BB has 200 to spec. Sure someone who limped could raise...but is it likely? Not really. And even if they raised, you're in a position with KK to call them as only AA beats you.
So...limp limp fold raise to 300 call call call call.
If the flop is A xx, congrats, you know you're behind. If the flop is 3 5 8 guess what? You're still in trouble. Here's why.
When you raise 300 into a pot with 2 limpers, you are just bloating the pot. That means every spec hand and/or set miner is against you. Your KK bet of 300 may be good against one hand, but it's not good against several hands. At that point, you aren't playing against a hand, you're playing against numerous hands!
So what can we do?
The 3X the BB raise is fine, but add a BB to it with every limper. So...
Blinds 50/100
Player1 : Call 100
Player2: Call 100
Player3: fold
Player4: (who has KK) Raise 500
Raise another 100 if you want. Some players go by 4x the bb. That will deter what I call "the train" of players repetitively calling and then YOU will be against a player with a weaker hand in a bad situation.
AAAAAAnd that leads us to the obvious fact that I'll borrow from another site.....
"Limpers suck at poker". Nobody who open limps constantly wins. When a player open limps, then most of the time, are speculating. So what you want to do when you feel like you have a better hand, is raise them. That not only knocks the other crap out of the hand, but it isolates you with the better hand against the player who has the worse hand.
Let's take the same crappy example from above.
Blinds 50/100
Player1 : (98os) Call 100
Player2: Call 100
Player3: fold
Player4: (who has KK) Raise 500
Player 5: folds
Player 6: folds
Player 1: calls (400)
Player 2: folds
So without knowing anything about the hand, you're already KK vs. 89 os on the flop.
So my point is: take what you standard raise and add a BB per limper
This point isn't a end all, but it shows the benefits of isolating limpers.
Good luck