New players and pre-flop raise

Why do new players here LOVE to raise pre-flop EVERY hand no matter what they have…just curious:)

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I think it is because they are using their real money. Or they do not know how to respect the other players.

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Not using real money

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OHH, at cash games new players do the same thing . I was just curious why…:slight_smile:

You must not have seen the t.v. camera broadcasting their every move. Bingos know what’s up! LMFAO…

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I often raise on pre flop, If the hand shows a touch of promise. What I hate are the all in or really suicide bets pre flop. Turns the game in a shoot out at the ok corral.

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havent played cash games in a loooong while, but it used to be the default to raise at least 1 blind to avoid limps

here there’s often no point since indeed the majority of players is going to call anyways

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Because they are competent at poker?

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:rofl:

seriously though… I believe for many of them it is because they believe they are playing good poker and that is what you are supposed to do. They do not understand that raising every hand pre flop is exactly the same as not raising every hand pre flop. “If everything is important then nothing is important.” :thinking:

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Well, no. It’s the same in the sense that you aren’t doing anything to differentiate your strong hands from your weak ones, in your opponents’ eyes. But if you raise every hand, they still have to put more chips in the pot if they want to contest your holdings.

In a full 9-max cash game, you really should be limping hardly ever - at least as a beginner. There are two ways raising every hand you want to play really benefits a novice player:

  1. it lowers the SPR, leaving less room for mistakes,

  2. it helps define your opponents’ range - sure they can play 5-8 offsuit for 2.5bb, but unless they’re Linus Loelliger that’s probably going to be a losing play in the long run (and maybe the short run… and maybe even for Linus!)

If you limp, you really don’t “know where you’re at” until someone bets postflop. Your opponents can play a really wide range with relative impunity, looking to catch something nutted and cash in their implied odds.

If I were coaching a beginner, I’d recommend NO limping range

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I am pretty sure that the original poster, and I know I, was referring to play here at Replay where a min raise pre flop is usually met with the whole table calling. When that happens every hand, aside from inflating the pot, I don’t understand how that is different from the ye old ‘everybody limp to the flop’ which is also a regular occurrence here :smiley:

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Gotcha.

The differences are subtle, but important.
Firstly, I think it’s assumed that if you’re only entering a pot by raising, you’re going to start folding your weaker hands. This will save you a significant amount of chips in the long run.
Second, you will fold out some hands that would limp behind. Probably not many, but some, and cleaning up that equity is still worth something.
Thirdly, you can open raise premium hands without being unbalanced. Balance is not usually that important, but when you come across a player who mostly limps and then suddenly raises, you can fairly confidently put them on a very strong but narrow range. If you manage to flop a hand that beats that range, you are going to be able to stack them a high percentage of the time.

It’s almost never the whole table that calls, but the adjustment to make when you keep getting multiple callers is not to stop raising, but to open a stronger range.

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^ this!

Hi lihiue, :smiley:
I am pretty sure both you and Younguru are better poker players than me, and are far more versed in poker theory. We are not talking about poker geniuses here or probably even folks who think much about their play. I don’t know when the last time you played low stakes was, but (again with the buts!), if you ever were to venture down from the lofty heights and visit us lowly mortals ( :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: ) you might see that indeed there are players that min raise every single hand (oh yeah, except for the occasional big raise pre flop(I wonder what that means???)) and tables that all call the min raise. These are not subtle players here with deep strategy. They are the players whose banks are perpetually at zero… then one day they pop up at your table, not raising every hand, you go and check their profile and lo and behold… they have a nice little bankroll… time to update that note. :smiley:

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Lol I see. Understood. Yes, we can agree these are just bad players who are destined to lose their whole roll if they don’t change their strat.

Oh, for sure. Even at higher stakes there’s still people limping in a lot. I was just saying that even when you’re at a table full of people limping in every hand, it’s still better to raise yourself than join them.
It can be extremely frustrating though, because you almost always have to play very passively post flop when you’re against multiple players who could have any two cards. I did take a stab at low stakes not too long ago, I couldn’t find the patience to play that way anymore, so I have a lot of respect for players at those stakes who are trying to play good poker.

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I agree with you 100% :smiley: