Raise or Fold – Why It’s An Optimal Preflop Strategy

Poker Preflop Strategy

In this article, we will take a look at why raising or folding is the best poker strategy.
The main advantage of a preflop raising strategy is you take control of the hand post flop because you were the preflop aggressor. Combined with position at the table, this is a license to print money.

When playing in shorthanded games, few players will see the flop. It’s usually 2 to 3 players at the most. So even when you miss the flop it often won’t hit your opponents either, and a continuation bet will take down the pot.

When considering what your action should be preflop, you should only be considering if you want to either raise or fold. Limping in pre flop, especially when playing shorthanded, is never usually the optimal play. If your hand strength and position at the table is not good enough to open with a raise, then you would be best just folding.

There is absolutely no reason for limping in pre flop. Limping is a sign of a weak player and when you see a player who is limp/calling a lot pre flop and playing most hands, you can be sure they are a fish.

The only time it can make sense to be limping preflop is when you are playing in late position and you have a hand like a low pocket pair, suited connectors and one gap connectors. With these type of hands you want to try and see the flop as cheap as possible, so it can be profitable to only call when it’s a raised pot.

When a player has already raised before the action gets to you, the options remain the same. You should only be considering whether to raise or fold. This places a lot of pressure on your opponents and steals a lot of dead money without even seeing a flop. If you have low/medium pocket pairs then it is preferrable to flat call a raise pre flop, because the plan is to only build a big pot if you happen to hit a set.

Using a preflop raising strategy doesn’t just allow you to take control of the hand. If you choose to either raise or fold preflop, it forces you to play only premium starting hands and a much tighter game. This is the recommended way to play if you are relatively inexperienced in playing online poker. It will get you in less awkward spots because there will be less marginal spots where you are unsure if your top pair and medium kicker is good enough to continue with, for example.

Now that you know the optimal play is to either raise or fold preflop, you then need to look at what hands you want to raise based on position. This is referred to as positional awareness.

You should be raising fewer hands in early and middle position and more hands in the CO and BTN which are considered late positions.

In earlly position when playing 6-max games, you should be raising a tight range, something like AT+ and all pairs. If you are playing on a very aggressive table, it can even make sense to fold 22-55 in early position if you expect to get re-raised. There is just so many flops where you can’t continue with the hand.

The preflop raising in middle position should be wider then early position but you still want to have a fairly tight starting hand range because you could be playing in a pot out of position if the player in the CO or BTN happen to call.

And in the late positions you want to open up your game the closer you get to the button.

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