PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

Now that you have had the opportunity to watch people raising and classify their raising tendencies, we're going to try and put this to good use. This assignment will require that you play a minimum of 3 NLHE tournaments this week. You are to classify as many players as you can with a raiser classification. You are to play according to the following instructions if you can find yourself in a situation where you are able to play heads up or at worst 3 handed with a particular raiser (or have a hand that warrants play regardless).

Pre-flop

Tight, aggressive raiser - if out of position, fold marginal hands. If in position, fold most hands. Hands you should call with include pocket pairs and suited (only suited) big cards. Fold hands like AJ/AT/KQ routinely. With big hands like AA/KK when you have position, just call pre-flop and let them hang themselves post-flop. The key here is to avoid playing many hands with these players unless you have position or strength.

Loose, aggressive raiser - ah this is going to be the part you all have problems with. You are to NEVER call a raise from them. You are either reraising or folding. You are to reraise and for the purposes of this assignment, anytime you reraise you are to raise 2x their raise amount) with any of the following hands: any pair, any ace, any two cards ten or better.

Rock raiser - call any raise from them if it is less then 4x the BB and you have position on them with suited connectors, pairs, suited big cards. If they check to you on the flop, bet 1/2 the pot, if they bet, use your discretion in proceeding, but generally have a hand to reraise or call. If you have AA or KK, reraise all-in pre-flop, otherwise just call (yes, this includes with QQ/JJ/AK).

Positional raiser - Reraise with any two.

Restealer - Move all in with any two.

Min. bet raiser - Reraise with any two until you determine what type of min. raiser they are. If they come over the top of you the first two times you reraise them, they are a "good hand" min. raiser usually, if they fold they are a "weak hand" min. raiser and you should reraise liberally. If they are a "good hand" min. raiser, change tactics and start calling with any suited connectors, pairs and big cards in position (the goal here is to see these cheap flops they are letting you see and try and bust them). Reraise them as you did previously with your bigger hands (JJ-AA/AK).

Non-raiser - well if they are raising, it's probably not a good sign... so fold unless you got it, reraise if you do.

Post-flop

Rock (Has a hand) raiser - pretty straight forward. Fold unless you have it - raise if you do.

Positional raiser - against this type of player, lead out with your standard continuation bet when you have it to induce the raise. A good play if you get raised here is to just call the raise and then check raise the turn.

Test weakness raiser - this is a lot like the positional raiser. If you run into one of these, lead out with a weaker 1/4 pot bet continuation bet to induce the raise.

Loose, aggressive raiser - bet when you have it, lead out with a bigger bet than normal... 3/4 pot.

Pre-flop aggressor raiser - my favorite type. Lead out with a 1/2 pot continuation bet and move all in when they reraise you (this is when you hit, obviously don't do this on a bluff).

Non-raiser - second verse same as the first.

The key with post-flop raisers is getting value for your strong hands by using their weaknesses against them. This portion is not about "bluffing" - typically if you are reraising someone post-flop, you better have at least something.

Once you have completed the assignment, answer the following questions for your own benefit:

1. Were you able to classify any players raising tendencies? How accurate were they? What problems did you have and why?

2. How did the pre-flop play work for you? What specifically worked and did not work? List any hands that gave you problems including your thought processes during the hand.

3. How did the post-flop play work for you? What specifically worked and did not work? List any hands that gave you problems including your thought processes during the hand?

4. General summary/thoughts of observing and playing against raisers - what did you learn that will help you go forward? What questions do you have?

In the next part, I am going to use a former student's response to these questions to conclude this section. It's an excellent response that will point out a lot of the concepts I was trying to get across.