In kicking off my Texas No Limit Tips, let's look at what
happened at a recent event in Brighton where I had the pleasure of
sitting on the same table as the young Richard Gryko. In my
opinion, he is the best young player on the live British
circuit. I don't think he is even 22 years old, but already
has an intimidating table presence. Very few players put the
same amount of thought into No Limit Hold'em, and it most
certainly is not a pleasure playing against him. The
sunglasses, his cool persona and ability to make players
sweat, are not the subject of this week's article though.
During the first level of the main event the blinds were
25/50 and the starting stacks were a deep 7,500. Every pot
Richard entered, he made it 125 to play. A much more
experienced player asked "what's all this 125 about?"
- He should have read my Texas No Limit Tips !!
I
found this comment interesting because I believe that most
players make a raise without actually knowing why they are
raising, or more precisely, what they hope to achieve with
their raise.
Texas No Limit Tips - Pot Building
In this situation Richard was 'pot building'
and announcing he had a better than average hand (even if it
was only suited connectors). He knows the 125 is not going
to scare anyone off. Players who were going to call the 50
will probably call 125. What he was hoping though, was that
when he eventually flopped a monster (possibly a made
straight or flush) he would be able to find an opponent with
two pair or another hand they can't put down. Hopefully
because the pot is bigger, the opponent may be drawn into
losing his whole stack, which is obviously better than
playing for a much smaller size pot.
I am also sure he also has confidence in his ability to
outplay his opponents post flop. So, if his opponent
indicates weakness, Richard will go ahead and steal the pot.
If the opponent has an average hand, he will not be prepared
to risk a bad call in a bigger pot this early in a
competition. Typical examples of this, may be raising with 8
9 of hearts and the flop showing A 7 2 off suit. An opponent
may well have called with a pair of 8s, but they are
unlikely to call any bet by Richard.
In this case of raising to 125, Richard is making a raise
where he is 'looking for action'. Later in competitions it
is very important to know whether you want action with your
hand, or whether you are happy to pick up the blinds/pot as
it stands. Let's say the blinds are now 1000/2000 in the
later stages. You have 10,000 chips and have just been dealt
J J. How much do you raise? If you make it 5,000 or 6,000
the Big Blind may call with an Ace rag type hand. The flop
could easily show an Ace, King or Queen, and you could find
yourself having to pass for your last 4,000 when you might
be winning.
So, in this case, the best move is raise to
10,000 all-in pre-flop. You may be unlucky enough to walk
into Aces, Kings or Queens, but this is more than counter
balanced by the fact, you may get called by smaller pairs
that you dominate. However, the importance of moving all-in
is that you are removing the very difficult post flop
decisions that this hand poses.
Let's say we are dealt AA in this position
of the tournament. We are a slightly below average stack and
beginning to struggle. I don't get dealt Aces very often.
When I get them, I want to double up. I'll take my chances
with the best hand here. I would probably make a minimum
raise here, hoping to trap one of the blinds, or even entice
a re-raise. I may get unlucky and lose to two pair, but the
size of my raise will be looking for trouble. Often,
experienced players will move their whole stack in, scare
off hands such as AQ, and then complain that they couldn't
get any action.
Texas No Limit Tips - Summary
Summarising my Texas no Limit Tips - think about why you are raising, what you want to achieve,
and use the appropriate amount of your stack.
Implement these Texas No Limit Tips at
Littlwoods Poker
BACK TO RULES, TIPS & STRATEGIES
