Alan Goehring on min raising - do you agree?

[curtains]

Goehring is obviously a huge fish at poker due to the size of his preflop raises.

[deankeaton7]

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However, if you raise 2xBB,you can put in a lot more loose raises. If you raise 3.5xBB, it is a lot harder to make early position raises, so you are more likely to have a big hand when you do. So your early position raises may be read as 99+, AQ+ or whatever.

If you are miniraising, it is a lot easier to raise in early position with suited connectors, small pairs or whatever. If you pick up a 3xBB pot with a 2xBB bet, that is an excellent result. If there is a lot of action, you can fold with minimal loss. You can fold to a reraise, call and hope to hit your hand or outplay your opponent, or put in a third raise as a semibluff. If you get called, you can represnet an ace, face cards, or an overpair on the appropriate flop. Plus you really might made a really big hand and thn people would have no idea what you have.


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Yes, by keeping the pot smaller, he has more options. No one gives him credit for having much anyway, and the frequency with which he gets reraised is prob. the same with both 2xBB and 3xBB raises. With the larger raise, his opponents are prob. pushing, rather than making a different reraise that can get Allen to postflop play.

I also really like the argument for doing this when you are big stacked. I do it sometimes online when im on the button and there is a Short stack in one of the blinds; but I may do this regardless of whether I have a hand or not. The point is to give him options. If he folds, whatever, i get his blind, if he plays back, then i win too.
at a tight table, where i can put in a few raises in a row from late position, someone sooner or later will take a stand. thoughts?

[rmgustaf]

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Where's your advantage? If you're Goehring (and I'm not, you're not, very few people are) you have a tremendous advantage post-flop. You can afford to let people see the flop more cheaply because you can and will outplay them after that. Goehring will get away from hands that most people simply won't. He's also talking about a tournament with much deeper stacks than those we typically play online. This again is clearly advantageous to someone who can outplay post-flop as without deepstacks you just can't get involved with lots of hands with any amount of post-flop aggression.

It's almost like taking an NFL playbook to a Pee Wee Football team. We're talking about two totally different games played by people of completely different calibre.

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He's also talking about live play, which is much, much different than online play - he has many more opportunities to read his opponents.

[akashra]

I agree.. You'd have to of course factor in the chipsize and tournament level. On a lower/medium stack I'd imagine you'd want to play more aggressively taking pots when you can in order to build up your stack. I'll make exceptions to this whenever I Run into AA, KK, and 50% of the time w/AK or QQ. I like the Miniraise here as you generally end up still with only 0/1/2 opponents (depending on the level + Buy-in of the tournament), and can milk more out on the flop, etc... I think the risk is outweighed by the reward in these situations..

[Lloyd]

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I'll make exceptions to this whenever I Run into AA, KK, and 50% of the time w/AK or QQ. I like the Miniraise here

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Tell

[akashra]

This is whenever I end up with AA, KK, and sometimes QQ or AK. I didn't state it in that previous post, but I'm referring particularly to later levels: A little before bubble, and post bubble. In these situations when low/mid stacked I find the reward greater in making a mini-bet. This will branch out into 3 general situations w/some exceptions of course:

1. You'll take the blinds which is identical to what would have happened w/a larger raise.

2. You'll get one or two callers, knowing that you will be in the lead going to the flop (while only having an A as a scarecard holding Kings).. In this case, You'll get a lot of action when they connect w/Top pair or a good draw, and depending on the strength of your post flop play and reads you can often get them to match your (shortstacked) all-in in as the underdog against your unexpected overpair. Many players will often continuation bet the flop irregardless of what hits as well, allowing you to cold-call, or raise depending on your feels, reads once again.. I rely a lot on my post flop play as well I suppose, and while acknowledging the added risk, love to see flops with the dominant hand if I think they'll fold to a larger or reraise preflop.

3. You get reraised -- Here, well obviously your pushing with Aces, and in almost cases with Kings as well. Depending on chipstacks, but I've been reraised by hands like A-10, K-J, lower pocket pairs by larger stacks or other short stacked players often enough to make this quite profitable. In my view it invites lesser hands to take a chance that would have alternatively folded to a larger or even standard 3x raise if they think your weak or trying to get away with a cheap blind steal.

[akashra]

Problem in my home games was nobody was ever smart enough to reraise when they did have strong hands; so you couldn't put anyone on a hand.. Most would see the flop with almost any two cards w/a large range of bets .. Of course you couldn't talk these guys into playing for anything over 5 bucks too..Meh.

[NHFunkii]

when lloyd says tell he isn't asking you to explain, he's telling you that that's a huge tell and you're broadcasting your hand.

[akashra]

Phil Gordon suggest this as well in his "Little Green Book"

[akashra]

Irregardless,

It works often enough to be profitable. If they are around you long enough to pick up on this once or twice, than you can use it w/lesser hands against the same player/s.