Introduction

In this article

Why you raise before the flop
How much you should raise
Why you should adapt your raise sizes

In the introductory article, "How to play before the flop [/strategy/sng/1348/1]", you learn first of all to raise to 4BB before the flop if you have more than 13BB in your stack and want to attack the blinds. In the beginning this is definitely a strategy which you can play very profitably. However, it is advisable not to stick to it stubbornly, but to vary the size of the raise in the range between 2,5 and 4BB if you have more than 13BB in your stack.

In this article you learn when and why you should raise before the flop and by how much.

The very early phase

Your stack and those of most of your opponents are bigger than 35BB: standard raise of 4BB

In this phase everything runs as usual. You raise to 4BB + 1BB per limper. There are two main reasons for the relatively high raise:

Protection: In the early phase you often raise only very strong hands which have to be protected. If you only raise to 3BB, you're more at risk of a player thinking, "Well, I can pay the 90 chips anyway and see the flop". As soon as somebody has done this, most of the time several others will follow his example.
Play for a whole stack: As already mentioned, if you decide to raise in an early phase, you often hold a very strong hand with which you are prepared, on many flops, to wager all your chips. In order to have the opportunity on later streets of getting all the opponents' chips in the middle, you have to start building the pot even before the flop. If in an early phase you win for example 1000 chips, from an opponent who has 1500 chips, this is of course a good result, but you'll keep asking yourself: "Could I have won the remaining 500 chips too?"

Note:

At PokerStars [/poker-stars] you are in the first blind level, 75BB deep. It is not a problem, especially in an early position, to raise to 5BB + 1BB per limper and to keep to both of the above targets: "Protection" and "play for a whole stack".

EXAMPLE 1:

Full Tilt Poker

Stacks
UTG (1500)
UTG1 (1500)
MP1 (1500)
MP2 (1500)
MP3 (1500)
Hero (1500)
BU (1500)
SB (1500)
BB (1500)

Blinds: 15/30

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, Q
2 folds, MP1 calls 30, 2 folds, Hero raises to 150, 3 folds, MP1 calls 120

Flop: 4, Q, 3 (Potsize 345)
MP1 checks, Hero bets 195, MP1 calls 195

Turn: 4, Q, 3, 8 (Potsize 735)
MP1 checks, Hero bets 400, MP1 calls 400

River: 4, Q, 3, 8, 4 (Potsize 1535)
MP1 checks, Hero bets 755 (All-In), MP1 calls 755 (All-In)

The standard pre-flop raise is 4BB + 1BB per limper, which corresponds to 150 chips. In this example you hold such a strong hand with top pair and top kicker (TPTK) that you are very happy to wager as many chips as possible.

As the community cards only allow for some rather improbable incomplete hands (draws), you do not need to bet too big, so you can make bets of half the pot size at a time, to get all your opponent's chips in the middle.

EXAMPLE 2:

Full Tilt Poker

Stacks
UTG (1500)
UTG1 (1500)
MP1 (1500)
MP2 (1500)
MP3 (1500)
Hero (1500)
BU (1500)
SB (1500)
BB (1500)

Blinds: 15/30

Preflop: Hero is CO with A , Q
2 folds, MP1 calls 30, 1 fold, MP3 calls 30, Hero raises to 180, 3 folds, MP1 calls 150, MP3 calls 150

Flop: J, 9, 7 (Potsize 555)
MP1 checks, MP3 checks, Hero checks

Turn: J, 9, 7, 8 (Potsize 555)
MP1 checks, MP3 bets 300, Hero folds, MP1 folds

Now there are two limpers, so you raise by one big blind more than in the first example to 180 chips.

Seeing that you miss the flop completely, and it is very likely that at least one of the two opponents has hit a hand that he does not want to give up, you can either fold on the flop or hope that your hand improves on the turn. You still have a remaining stack of 1320 which allows you to continue playing comfortably.

These two examples show that by raising 4BB + 1BB per limper, you find yourself in a very decent position to play on the flop. If you would like to wager many chips and if your opponent agrees to invest, you can get all the chips in the middle and should you miss the flop, you can still give up without having reduced your stack too badly.

The advanced early phase

Your chip stack and those of most other opponents are in the range of 22BB and 35BB: standard raise of 3BB.

Also in this phase you almost always raise with very strong hands, and the factors of "protection" and "play for a whole stack" are still of fundamental importance. However, now another factor comes into play. A raise before the flop and a possible continuation bet put considerably more pressure on your stack than in the very early phase.

For example, if you still have 30BB, you raise to 4BB and the player on the button makes his move, then there are already 9,5BB (4 from you, 4 from the button, 1 from BB and 0,5 from SB) in the pot and the continuation bet should be in the range of 5BB and 6BB. However, if you have missed and he attacks you, all you can do is give up. In this case you have lost approx. a third of your stack, which is considerably high.

Raising to 3BB offers slightly better opportunities. Let us see how it affects the factors of "protection" and "play for a whole stack":

Protection: Because the blinds are now higher, even with a 3BB raise you will gain respect from your opponents, as they tend to watch the total number of chips instead of the BB ratio. (A typical example of this is that players who drop below 1000 chips early on, play a totally unreasonable game, even though some of them still have more than 30 BB and a lot of time). A raise to 3BB at 25/50 is bigger than one to 4BB at 15/30.
Play for a whole stack: Then again, a smaller raise will not bring about a disadvantage. The total size of the raise is big enough to receive all the chips from an opponent who is willing to pay.

EXAMPLE 3:

Full Tilt Poker

Stacks
UTG (1375)
MP1 (2825)
MP2 (1050)
MP3 (1200)
Hero (1960)
BU (1390)
SB (1930)
BB (1770)

Blinds: 25/50

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, K
4 folds, Hero raises to 150, 2 folds, BB calls 100

Flop: Q, 5, 3 (Potsize 325)
BB checks, Hero bets 180, BB raises to 540, Hero folds

Because you are now in the advanced early phase, you only raise to 3BB before the flop.

It is debatable whether a bet should be placed on the flop. On the one hand, this is the standard move as BB might fold a pair like 66, but on the other hand many players just do not make these folds. So no better hands fold to your bet and possibly only a few worse ones call. In this case Hero decides to bet as the opponent on the flop is playing very honestly.

Now the opponent raises and Hero simply folds. In this hand Hero loses 330 chips, which he can cope with, and which can be attributed to the fact that the raise before the flop was only 3BB.

The medium phase

Your stack and those of most opponents are in the range of 13BB and 22BB: standard raise of 2,5BB.

Now the thoughts repeat themselves. The even smaller raise allows you more leeway on the flop and you are not as "pot committed". Moreover, there are no disadvantages regarding protection and the opportunity to play for whole stacks, because the total size of your raise is big enough.

EXAMPLE 4:

Full Tilt Poker

Stacks
UTG (1775)
MP2 (1450)
Hero (1425)
CO (2960)
BU (1390)
SB (2780)
BB (1820)

Blinds: 50/100

Preflop: A, J
2 folds, Hero raises to 250, 3 folds, BB raises to 1820 (All-In), Hero?

In this situation your standard raise is 2,5BB and you are now facing a so called resteal, which means that the player in the big blind has raised again (his entire stack in fact). This is a move which makes sense in this phase, and you should introduce it in your play in any case.

Now you must look at your odds and estimate how strong you are, compared to your opponents.

The first point is simple. The pot already has 250 (your raise) + 50 (SB) + 1425 (be careful, he goes all-in, but with your stack of 1425 you can only win a maximum of 1425 chips from him; the other 395 chips are therefore irrelevant here) =1725 Chips.

You would need to call another 1175 chips, so your odds are 1175 to 1725, which is approx. 1:1,5.

In order to be able to call for chips alone, you would need a winning probability of 40% against him. But keeping in mind that you need to look after the expected value ($) and that chips won do you less good than the lost ones do you bad, you should have even a little bit more than 40%.

To calculate this accurately, you should use an ICM calculator, which you will learn about in more detail later on.

Now let us assume that BB goes all-in with approx. 88+, ATs+, AJo+ over your raise. According to the PokerStrategy.com equilator (which you should get yourself, to improve your own analytical abilities) you have in this case a winning probability of at least 39%, so you have to fold.

Now let us assume that you make the fatal error before the flop of raising to 4BB. Then your odds would be 1025:1875 and you would have called with a winning probability of 39%. The result would be that you go all-in for more than 14 big blinds with a hand whose winning probability is less than 40%. The chances of quitting the game would have been 60%, although you could have kept on playing with your stack. That is precisely the reason why you are not so easily "pot committed" with a smaller raise.

Finally, there are no strict rules in this scenario and you should always consider whether taking a different path makes sense. For instance, if you and another player, who likes to play, have far more chips than all the others, a slightly bigger raise could make sense because the two of you are in a different phase so to say, compared to all the others.

It might also be advisable when there are players who do not really respect a 2,5 BB raise, to simply go all-in for 14BB before the flop, and avoid complicated situations after the flop. However, you will develop a good feeling for this in time, if you keep analyzing your game.

Blind levels and standard raises on different poker rooms

PartyPoker
Starting stack 2,000
20/40	30/60	50/100	100/200
4BB	3BB	2,5BB	2,5BB, but mostly already all-in or fold.

PokerStars
Starting stack 1,500
10/20	15/30	25/50	50/100	75/150
5BB	4BB	3BB	2,5BB	2,5BB, but mostly already all-in or fold.

Full Tilt Poker
Starting stack 1,500
15/30	20/40	25/50	30/60	40/80	50/100	60/120	80/160
4BB	4BB	3BB	3BB	2,5BB	2,5BB	2,5BB	2,5BB, but mostly already all-in or fold.

Summary:

Now you have learnt that for determining the amount of your raise, the factors "protection", "play for a whole stack" and "do not put too much pressure on the stack in case of failure", play the most important role.

The established standard is to raise to 4BB if your stack is bigger than 35BB, to 3BB if your stack is between 22 and 35BB and finally only to 2,5BB if your stack is between 13 and 22BB.

LINKS

Related articles:

How to play before the flop [/strategy/sng/1348]

Bet sizing - How much do you bet and why? [/strategy/sng/761/1]