PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

It is difficult for a poker player to grasp how to react to a player raising. The main reason is that usually when a person raises, the price of getting involved is substantial and as a result your entire stack could be at risk. The cautious nature of most poker players...of preserving their chip stack...leads to uncertainty as to what to do. Over the course of the next several parts, we're going to study how and when people raise, classify raisers into several categories, and then apply various concepts as how to play against these classifications. Raisers are the most difficult type of player to play because they are the ones applying pressure, not you.

Assignment

This is similar to the playing caller’s assignment. You are to pick two players to observe. One should be a solid player that you consistently see make final tables, and the second should be a maniac/loose aggressive player who would give you trouble if you were playing against them.

You are to observe the following about them:

Pre-flop:

How often do they raise? Does how often they raise vary? Meaning, do they raise more early in the tournament or later?

How much do they raise? Do they vary their raise amounts? What are their typical raise amounts? For any hand that was shown - show what the hand was and the amount they raised.

How often do they reraise? How much did they reraise? For any hand that was shown - show what the hand was and the amount they reraised.

How often do they raise first to act from one before the cutoff or later?

Post-flop:

How often do they raise someone who bet? What are the amounts of their raises? For any hand that was shown - show what the hand was and the amount they raised.

If they raised preflop and someone bet, how often do they raise that bet? For any hand that was shown - show what the hand was and the amount they raised.

Create a report answering those questions and then assign the player a raising classification from the following categories. If a player fits more than one category, assign as many as are applicable:

Pre-flop Raiser Categories

Tight, aggressive raiser - raises with solid holdings only (pairs and big cards). Position usually impacts what hands they raise with.

Loose, aggressive raiser - raises with a wide range of hands. Position has no impact on what hands they raise with.

Rock raiser - only raises with the premium hands (big pairs/AK).

Positional raiser - loves to steal raise in position.

Restealer - loves to reraise a supposed "steal" attempt.

Minimum bet raiser - makes minimum raises when they raise.

Non-raiser - does not raise

Post-flop Raiser Categories

Rock (Has a hand) raiser - only raises when they have a hand.

Positional raiser - raises when they have position to "test" or apply pressure to a bettor.

Test weakness raiser - raises anytime someone makes what they perceive to be a weak bet.

Loose, aggressive raiser - raises freely regardless of opponent or position.

Pre-flop aggressor raiser - anytime they raised pre-flop, they will raise post-flop.

Non-raiser - does not raise.

In the next section, we'll do an assignment testing how to play against each of these classifications.

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