blonde poker forum

Not strictly hand analasys, but a general strategy question.

I see no point in min-raising pre-flop in virtually any situation, yet even in the bigger buy-in tournament ($50-$200), I see people doin it all over the place.

What's the point???!!!

pot building

i dont like it

Also - if you just want to be irritating

Pisses ppl off, isolates players, gives you a looser image, builds the pot.

If you've been playing nice & tight, can't a min raise be used as a bluff raise in early position ?

Sort of ..

You know this guy bets 3x BB with AK in mid position, therefore a small OOP raise means that he must have a massive hand, because we all know it's a pot building bet .

Or is that too much Kursal Flyers ?

to take a lead on the flop

e.g. cash game a10 on button folded to me i may min raise here

cut implied odds on the flop so that people know that they wont get paid enough if they hit there draws

to confuse donkeys who think that a min raise always means aces.

To take advantage of rocks deep in comps.

My observations are that the majority of times the initail mini raiser folds to a re raise but have seen AA and QQ mini raised but generally its weaker Ax off type hands.

If your already in a hand and get mini raised do you fold? if so, your starting requirements might ned to be addressed.

Its not a tactic i employ but my experiances suggest the majority of the time the mini raiser is just saying I am weak

i use the minimum raise sometimes in early position when i have a hand i wanna see a flop with, especially when the blinds are low.
people less likely to re raise so then u get to see the flop.


other than that cant stand minimum raisers lol

Why? Telegraphs a donks hand perfectly for you. Just indicates he's not folding.

[size=06pt]I never said a word[/size]

When I can't be @rsed to use the slidey thing.

i thought this topic might generate a bit of action so to speak.

i've been thinking about it a bit more recently and there are 2 situations when I think there's any point whatsoever in a min-raise.

Firstly when you're relatively deep, you're in late position and you want to play a hand heads up with the bb. In this case, you might min-raise give the sb worse odds so they'll prob fold if they have crap. Also, if you're in the cut-off, you can buy position. So I suppose it's a cheap way of trying to get a hand heads up (if that's what you desire).

The second might be if you're reasonable late in a tournament and the bb is a medium to short stack. In this case you may actually have fold equity on your raise.

Having said all this, you'll still never catch me min-raising. I agree with Rookie.

I dont get you Ironside, maybe im being a little thick, 18 hours working straight will do that to you.  My figuring was that implied odds are only reduced on the flop by moving all in and so negating the possibility of gaining more chips on a later street when a draw potentially connects. Mini raising, in my mind at least, builds pots but has no implications re implied odds whatsoever unless the miniraise is all in??

If you dont "get" minimum raises your poker bookshelf needs updating.

Love the comment about "when i cant be arsed to use the slidey thing".

Sometimes I'll make a bet on the river to get some more money in the pot, on occasions this will be the minium. Isn't there a play in one of Harrington books (I assume it must be in the chapter on bluffing) where he describes the "post-oak bluff" where you put in the minium amount on the river to represent a big hand when in fact you have bugger all?

Yep, also looks better if when short stacked you dont go ai preflop even if your hand is shite.



Post oak bluff? Harrington the mug. I call it the "value-lookalike bluff" and i'v copyrighted that puppy.

Are we all saying that thereis no place for a smallish raise even with low pairs and suited connectors. It is just a black and white as 3xBB or fold? I think that is ridgid thinking.

I should have made it more clear in the original post, but I'm refering to min-raises pre-flop. I think everyone will agree that min-raises post flop certainly have their place.

I pot reraise them just for fun.