Exceptions to the Standard Raise, Part 2

[Fonzi]

The standard raise is a fairly simple way, to make effective raises. However, anything so simple must have exceptions, and the standard raise is no different. As I mentioned in the previous article, the standard raise is noted as 3-5xBB plus 1xBB per limper, and is used to force out marginal hands that could potentially limp, and out flop you.

Some of the exceptions to the standard raise include your position at the table, the size of your chip stack, and the size of your opponents’ chips stacks (considering you’re playing in a tournament). Other things that can change the basic rules of the standard raise are the size of the blinds compared to chip stacks, the “tightness” of the table, and your table image.

In Part 1, I covered the exceptions regarding position at the table and the size of your chip stack.

In Part 2, I will cover the exceptions regarding the size of your opponents chip stacks and the size of the blinds compared to chip stacks.

And in Part 3, I will cover the exceptions regarding the “tightness” of the table, and your table image.
The following are examples with descriptions on how to change the standard, or what to do instead of the standard raise in special situations:

Example 2-1 Opponents Chip Stacks

You have a decent sized stack, the 2 blinds are short stacked.
Seat 1 (1000)-SB 50
Seat 2 (1100)-BB 100
Seat 3 (4000)-Folds
Seat 4 (3700)-Folds
Seat 5 (2600)-Folds
Seat 6 (700)-Folds
Seat 7 (4200) (YOU) - 33, you have the option to raise 800, limp, or fold
Seat 8 (6100)-yet to act
Seat 9 (3800)-yet to act

In this situation, the standard raise would be a 300-500 chip raise. One reason you can’t make this raise is because the players in the blinds are both short stacked. This means that they are likely to push on a wider range of hands and every single one of those hands are at least a coin flip to your threes, with the exception of A3 and A2, which a player short stacked, might push on. Another reason the standard raise doesn’t work here is because your threes aren’t favored against two random calling hands so you don’t really want to be in a pot with 13% of your stack committed.

Now let’s look over your options starting with what I believe is the worst option of the three; limping. Assuming the players in seat 8 and 9 don’t raise, then the short stack blinds see an easy opportunity to up their stack by pushing their stack on almost any 2 cards, and the last thing you want to do with a small pocket pair is call a large raise. Since there are in fact two short stacks in the blinds, the odds of that happening are too great for me to risk limping (even though I said it’s a cheap investment to limp, and try to hit a set, in this situation you will likely be forced to call a raise pre flop, resulting in the waste of 100 chips).

The other two options, folding and raising about 800, in my opinion are the best, but I defnatly prefer one over the other. I’ll begin with my least favorite of the two; raising 800. I believe this option could be profitable but there’s risk involved. One, the players in seat 8 and/or 9 could have a hand that plays, and is at least a coin flip towards you, and they are willing to see a flop with you, or even re raise. Two, one or both of the players in the blinds will be willing to push on any decent to even marginal hand, and excluding A2 and A3, you are at best a coin flip.

Then, of course, you could fold. This option is not very appealing to players because they assume “pocket pair, nobody has show strength, and I’m in late position” but that’s incorrect. As we have gone over the other two options of limping, and raising 800, we see that folding is the best option because it involves absolutely no risk, and avoids running into the short stacks. You have no previously invested money in this hand, thus a fold, cost nothing to you, and keeps you out of trouble. I would highly suggest dropping the pocket 3’s in this situation for the above reasons.

Example 2-2 The size of the blinds compared to your chip stack

Final 5, in a large buy in 10 player turbo sit n go (top 3 place), everybody has a 3000 chips stack.
Seat 1-SB 200
Seat 2-BB 400
Seat 3-Limps 400
Seat 4-Folds
Seat 5 (YOU)-AK, your options are to min raise or push all in.

Here, the reason you cannot follow the rules of the standard raise is because it would lead you to bet about ½ to 2/3 of your stack. Once doing this, you are 100% committed to call any re raise. In addition to that, your opponents know you are pot committed, so they will only re raise you on a premium hand that has you dominated.

So you have the option to min raise, or re raise. You could also fold, but I would never fold AK without seeing some form of strength ahead of me, unless it’s a very rare situation, and this is not one of them. So again I will start with my least favorite of the two; min raising to 800. The reason that you don’t follow the standard raise here is because you don’t want to commit yourself to a pot, and be forced to call a re-raise. Many people see a min raise on the button as weakness, so they could potentially raise, and since you are not pot committed, the correct play after a re-raise is to fold, and you wasted 800 chips, and put yourself in the critical short stack position.

In fact, many people would be quite scared to push all in, in this situation, but I believe it’s the best option. There are 3 potential players left in the pot. The player who limped (which would not be done with AA or KK due to the fact that they don’t want to allow more than 1 or 2 opponents against their top pocket pair) so at worst you are a coin flip against him, but most likely a large favorite. Before we look at the players in the blinds, let’s review some math. If you win this pot you have increased your stack by 30%. So for this to be profitable, you must steal the blinds 3 out of 4 times to break even. The odds of one player being dealt AA or KK (the only 2 hands that have you beat by more than a coin flip) is .9%, so for two players, it’s about 2%. That’s 1 in 50. For you to profit they could have AA or KK 12.5 times out of 50, yet they only have it once. Thus you are getting about 12.5 to 1 on your money by pushing all in. By the numbers, this is clearly the best choice. (I didn’t take into account the SLIGHT chance that the limper is uneducated and limped with AA or KK, because I didn’t take into account the % that your AK beats the AA or KK of your opponents). For the above reasons, the best play here is to push all in.

Please stay tuned for the next article, “Exceptions to the Standard Raise, Part 3” where I will cover the exceptions regarding the “tightness” of the table, and your table image.


By: ungarstu132