Thoughts on Pre-Flop Raising Adjustments

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I’ve recently been involved in a forum discussion on non-standard pre-flop bet-sizing, and the secondary debate of the best way to exploit players who will call large pre-flop raises far too liberally, and open-raise far too high.

Since it’s been an interesting and lively discussion, and as it seems to be an issue many new players struggle to grasp, I thought I’d dedicate some time explaining just how far you should adjust your play when trying to exploit an opponent, and what some of the negatives of non-standard strategies might be.

For the record, I’m not against making non-standard plays, but using it as a general strategy I think is a bad idea. Non-standard plays should be the exception and not the norm. I feel that adjusting to a specific opponent or opponents is extremely important, but there are still pitfalls that will trip you up if you start making too many non-standard plays.

The Back-story

On a poker forum I frequent, a small group of relatively new, but highly engaged players have been detailing the types of opponents they find themselves facing in micro-sakes games, and looking for advice to combat their “wacky” play.

You know the type, opponents who do not respect any pre-flop raise regardless of the size, and opponents who open-raise to 7-10x the blinds themselves.

While this might be a dream scenario for experienced poker players, it’s also one that every long-time poker player knows will produce some serious headaches when your loosey-goosey opponents are getting hit by the deck. In these cases you start to question if what you are doing is in fact the “correct” way to play, and if you should be raising more to eliminate opponents and punish their bad calls.

While I understand the idea of punishing players when you have the best of it pre-flop –getting in while the getting is good so to speak– there are a few aspects of the game of poker that this type of thinking doesn’t account for or simply overlooks. The first of which is…

You’re making yourself far too easy to exploit

One of the reasons most players raise to roughly the same amount pre-flop is that it has been shown to be tough to exploit. The standard 2.5x-3.5x open is just large enough to win the blinds uncontested when your opponents don’t have much of a hand or are a bit too tight; it won’t cost you too much money if a player starts getting aggressive and three-betting you; and the raise is not so large that you won’t get action from lesser hands.

Basically, it’s the sweet spot; the Goldilocks zone for pre-flop raise sizing.

Now, when you start making pre-flop raises of 5x, 7x, or even 10x on the regular you increasingly lose that coveted balance of the raise-size being just right. In a normal game your thinking opponents will only give you action when they have a really good hand, and the amount you win in blinds isn’t enough to overcome the times your opponent 3-bets and forces you to fold.

But as the people arguing for larger opens would say, “what about when you you’re playing in a game where three people will call a 7x open with hands like KT, 44, and 86s? Well, in these situations your large pre-flop raise is…

Taking arrows out of your quiver

*Side note: This header was inspired by Red Sox outfielder Johnny Gomes postseason celebration where he “empties the quiver.”*

My answer to that question is yet another question: Have you ever run into a player who is calling 8-10% of their stack pre-flop with KT or 86s that won’t make the same or even more egregious mistakes post-flop?

The answer is obviously no. No player is horrendous enough to make these plays pre-flop and then suddenly able to transform into a perfect post-flop player, it just doesn’t happen that way.

So when you make these excessive pre-flop bets you are essentially shortening the stacks you are playing with, and when you shorten effective stacks you are limited in the plays you can make post-flop –as is your opponent, which means they will make fewer mistakes than they normally would.

For instance, if you open to 10x with a 45BB stack and get called by two players, your only move on the flop is all-in or fold. And your opponent will have a much simpler decision to make, as it comes down to, “did I hit the flop or not?”

Or, suppose it’s early on in a $1 buy-in MTT (assume effective 100BB stacks) and you’ve seen the table playing crazy –four or five players to a flop; players opening as high as 10x, etc—and you’re dealt QQ in early position.

The normal play here is to raise 3x, but considering the table dynamics you decide to raise to 8x since “regular” raises haven’t been getting any respect and you don’t want to play this hand five ways. So, along with the big blind you get a couple of the other looser players to call.

The four of you see the flop which comes down K89 rainbow. The big blind checks, and with the pot already at 32BB’s you decide to make a continuation bet, a 16BB c-bet. You get raised by a loose passive player and fold your hand, losing 25% of your stack in the process.

Or, what if you have 200 Big Blinds, make the same raise with a hand like 66 and a tight/aggressive player 3-bets to 25BB? Not only have you tossed away 8BB’s, but you’ve taken away your opportunity to set-mine against the perfect type of opponent.

What these situations illustrate is that large raises make decision easier for your opponents. You are eliminating the possibility of reeling them in, and hoping they make a decent hand when you make an even better hand.

I understand that you won’t win as often when half the table calls, but when you do win, the pots will be bigger. So, as long as you can fold QQ when the flop comes down A59 and you’re faced with a bet and call in front of you, you’ll be just fine.

The point is, when you shorten the stacks, you take more and more arrows out of your quiver, which levels the playing field between you and your lesser skilled opponents.

The benefits of deliberate practice

There is also something to be said for practice, deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice is when you practice a skill with the intention of improving towards your ultimate goal. For instance, in golf players don’t simply play golf and they don’t practice unnecessary skills like hitting your 7-Iron in a bunker; they practice things like putting, strength and flexibility, and they go to the driving range.

Or what if you were an aspiring NBA player who was 6’7” tall but you always played against 6’ players? You’d probably have a great catch and turn shot, but against players with the same skill and height as you it would get rejected back over your head.

Well the same holds true in poker.

Just because something is working in a certain situation doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a skill you want to develop moving forward. If you’re consistently making overly large pre-flop raises because your current competition is so exploitable than you’re not putting in the practice time for when you move up to a level where players are a bit more skilled. So you end up practicing a skill that has a slight short-term benefit (a debatable point at that) and disregarding a skill that will actually make you a better player.