Playing Tight Aggressive – Preflop Raising

We now have a hand range for each position to get you started with a winning strategy, but there are a few things that need to be explored a bit more specifically. One major aspect of poker we need to learn about is raising preflop, as we will be encountering the situations where we want to raise preflop quite a lot.

This article will continue to develop your preflop strategy.

How Much Should You Raise?

So, we know we should raise a certain hand, but how much do we raise it to? You should be using a standard raise size so other players can’t get information about your hand from the size of your raise. This doesn’t mean we will be raising the same amount every time we raise, there are a few differentials that affect the size of our raise, but one of these differentials should never be the strength of the hand you are holding.

The first thing that will affect how much we raise to is our position. To put it simply, we want to raise more in earlier positions and less in later positions. In Early Positions (UTG, UTG+1) we should be raising to four times the big blind (4BB), in the Middle Positions (MP1, MP2, and HJ) we can lower our raise size slightly to 3BB, and in the Late Positions (CO and BU) we can lower it ever so slightly to 2.5BB. We do this because the later we are, the less chance there is that a player yet to act has a strong hand (simply because there are fewer players), and also because we don’t mind having a large amount of chips in relation to the pot size when we are In Position postflop.

The next thing that affects our raise size is the amount of callers in the pot before us (when a player calls the big blind it’s called a limp), for every player that has limped before us we should add 1BB to our raise size.

So, for example, if we are in MP2 and two players have limped into the hand before us, our raise size should be 5BB.

What If Someone Raises Before You?

There will be times where you find yourself holding a strong hand, and by the time the action reaches your seat someone else has entered the pot with a raise.

Now, let’s say we have the strongest hand in poker, a pair of Aces, and someone raises before you. Obviously we want to raise them (this type of raise is called a 3-bet, the blinds are the 1-bet, the initial raise is the 2-bet, and your raise will be a 3-bet), but how much do we raise? If we go all in for all of our money they might be scared off, but if you raise too small you don’t get enough money out of them.

Fortunately, we have a standardised raising size for 3-bets, which is three times the size of the initial raise, plus one raise size for every player who has called the raise. For example, if we are on the BU, and MP1 has opened the pot with a raise to 3BB, and CO has called him, our 3-bet size would be to 12BB.

Summary

• We need to have a consistent raise sizing, so as not to give away free information to our opponents
• The size of our raises should never be influenced by the strength of our hand
• In early positions, we raise to 4BB, in middle positions to 3BB, and in late positions to 2.5BB
• We add on an additional big blind for every caller before us
• Our 3-bet sizes are three times the original raise, plus one raise size for every caller of the initial raise