Poker Texas Holdem Minimum Raise

1. Standard poker rules require that raises must be at least equal to the amount of the previous bet or raise. For example, if an opponent bets $5, a player must raise by at least another $5, and they may not raise by only $2.
2. Similarly, if you minimum raise a player that bets into you, you will often be giving them the correct odds to outdraw you, even if you have the best hand at the time. In addition to this, a minimum bet or raise tells you very little about your opponent’s hand, as they are almost always going to call regardless of what they might be holding.

Min Raise Poker

Open raising the minimum gained popularity a few years ago. It is twinned with the small ball tournament poker strategy that gained fame through Daniel Negreanu. Whilst it’s an effective and popular strategy for tournaments, it is widely accepted to have little to no merit in cash games. This article will focus on the pros and cons of min raise poker in tournaments.

Pitfalls of the minimum reraise You’re playing in a 9-handed $1/2 no-limit hold’em cash game and you make a standard raise to $8 with A-Q suited from middle position. Everyone folds around to the original limper who makes it $16 to go. This mostly happens in low-limit online cash games where players often misplay big pairs. If you're talking about no limit holdem, the minimum reraise must equal the current amount to call plus the previous RAISE amount. In other words, if blinds are 1/2.

Pros of Min Raise Poker

Cheaper Bluffs

Open raising for the minimum allows you to pull off cheaper steals. It’s great taking down a pot with little to no resistance and bluffing for the minimum is even better isn’t it? By min raising you can sometimes steal the blinds with a poor hand and get away with the cheapest of bluffs.

Shorter Stacks – Accomplishes the Same as Big Betting

If you have played many tournaments you will know that a lot of is played with shorter stacks than cash games. It’s not uncommon to play an entire tournament with between 15 and 30 big blinds. Open raising the minimum can be just as effective as open raising for 3 big blinds so why would you risk more? It’s common sense to risk less.

Still Gets Respect

When online poker was booming, min raise poker looked the weakest thing ever. This has not been the case for a long time. People don’t perceive a min raise as weakness anymore. On the contrary, it can be seen as inviting action, particularly from early position.

More Poker

Open raising double the blinds allows you to play more poker. It stands to reason if you are open raising 2 big blinds instead of 4 than you are going to be playing for smaller pots and have the potential to be involved more. This is definitely a pro if you are a better player than most at your table. After all, you want to play more hands with weaker players, right?

Less Variance

The min raise poker style is likely to yield less variance in tournaments. Why? Well think about it, if you are min raising and playing more pots post flop, you are less likely to be involved in all in or fold mode. You are adopting a style that is risking little, not open raising for large % of your stack and committing your tournament life.

Cons of Min Raise Poker

More Multi-way Pots

Unfortunately, you can expect to play fewer pots heads up if you are min raising. You may think this is ok but mathematically speaking, the players involved, the lower your chances of winning the pot. It’s easier to knock one player our or have the better hand than 3 isn’t it? Multiway pots aren’t ideal, particularly if you are playing shorter stacks.

Opponents 3 Bet’s are Cheaper (and lighter?)

This is anecdotal but I believe it to be true from my own experience. It’s true on the best bitcoin poker sites and real money poker sites. In many games, players are more inclined to 3 bet a min raise than a standard open. They know their 3 bet is costing them less. Consider the example below:

Consider, in the scenarios above you are raising from early position. Your opponent thinks you’re weak and wants to 3 bet you. If the raise is 3,000, he knows it will cost at least 8,000 and may be put off.
He will surely be more inclined to 3 bet if he knows it can be achieved for 5,000 or 6,000.

Giving Big Blind Great Pot Odds

Any poker player with sense will defend their big blind very wide against a min raise. This is especially true when there are antes. This is not a con for me personally – I want to play poker heads up in position. However, you are helping them play better, inviting them in with a very wide range of hands that can outdraw yours. It’s generally not a great idea to give good pot odds to your opponents. You want to force mistakes and min bets rarely accomplish this.

More Pots Out of Position

In a full ring game, min raises from early or middle position will often find you playing poker against someone in late position. This is far from ideal as you will be acting before them every round post flop. Decision making needs to be impeccable to turn a good win rate post flop when you’re playing with fewer chips than cash games. The truth is, min raises often get called by competent players in the cut-off or on the button.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are reasonable arguments for and against the min raise in poker. If you are thinking about adopting this style, please make sure you are consistent. There is no use min raising with weak and making it 4x with AA. Even the most basic of players will pick up on this transparency. Instead, be consistent and committed to the style. Ensure you are not adopting a min bet style post flop as the two are widely different.

If action has folded around to you in a $1-$2 No-Limit Hold’em game and you want to raise with a hand like AK, you raise 3x to 4x the big blind -- or $6 to $8 in this example.

One alternative raising strategy employed my many pro players is the 'min-raise' or minimum raise. Today we will take a look at the min-raise and how to best add it to your poker game.

Min-Raise Explained

The min-raise is as simple as it sounds. You basically raise to two times the big blind. If you were in a $2-$4 cash game, you would raise to $8.

Basically, you're employing a Limit Poker betting strategy in NL Hold'em. However, the reasoning behind using such a tactic is sound.

1. Slow Down Other Players

For starters, it can stop other players from raising.

When a player makes a standard raise, most players are fine with getting the blinds or blinds and antes. Other players know this.

But when you min-raise, a player might mistake your raise as deception and think you might be raising with a premium hand. This forces them to slow down and thus may result in you getting to see a cheaper flop.

Poker Texas Holdem Minimum Raise Limit

2. Great for Post-Flop Play

Next, a min-raise is great for those with strong post-flop play. Most players aren't going to make a ton of mistakes pre-flop but once that board starts to develop, they have a much more difficult time in making the right decisions.

Those that have a strong post-flop game will want to take your opponents to task as often as possible and a min-raise helps you accomplish this.

3. Controlling the Pot

The min-raise will also help you with pot control. Let's assume you're in a tournament with blinds of 25-50. A min-raise is 100.

If you get one caller there's just 200 in the pot and you'll have to put a lot less of your stack at risk when making a continuation bet.

Had you made a standard 4x raise the pot would be 400 on the flop and you can see how this can escalate. The min-raise helps with pot control and will allow you to play more pots past the flop when you're behind.

It also helps you get away from a hand with minimal damage when your opponent makes a hand and starts trying to pump the pot.

Better for Tournaments

As you've probably already guessed, min-raising tends to work better in tournament situations over cash-game situations.

Poker Texas Holdem Minimum Raised

When you're in a $1-$2 cash game you'll get a lot more action on a min-raise than you will in a tournament where the blinds and antes escalate.

That's not to say that a min-raise strategy won't help you in cash games, because it may depending on your opponents.

Poker Texas Holdem Minimum Raises

However, many pros employ this strategy more in tournament play because of the value of chips versus those in cash game action.