Unlimited Raises

[Al Mirpuri]

I play at a site (Paradise Poker) that allows unlimited raises when it gets heads up.

Should I keep raising as long as I think I am winning or should I put a voluntary cap at four bets (and calling a fifth if opponent makes it five)?

[Al Mirpuri]

I have come out against unlimited raises as it is too difficult to judge whether I am winning or not and it just adds to the variance. Rarely, do you have the stone cold nuts so if you do get into a raisng war all you have is your 'feel' for the situation.

[pzhon]

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I have come out against unlimited raises as it is too difficult to judge whether I am winning or not and it just adds to the variance. Rarely, do you have the stone cold nuts so if you do get into a raisng war all you have is your 'feel' for the situation.

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In my experience, I've come out way ahead on the bets in excess of 4. Of course this is true for the times I had the nuts, but it is also true for the times when I tackled a maniac, e.g., I put in 15 bets with TPTK against someone who I saw was getting into raising wars with draws and weaker 1-pair hands.

When you don't have the nuts, raising does add variance, but it can be much safer than playing ordinary poker. Adding gambles which are safer than normal poker tends to decrease the size of your downswings. Focus on EV first, not on reducing variance.

[pzhon]

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Should I keep raising as long as I think I am winning or should I put a voluntary cap at four bets (and calling a fifth if opponent makes it five)?

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Putting 'A or B?' before a poll that says yes or no will muddy the results.

[jono]

I think 5 is good for heads up.

[PantsOnFire]

Obviously, with the nuts, just keep going until somebody reaches the felt. If you don't have the nuts, you have to decide how many hands beat you and what possible hands you beat but that villain would be happy to felt with.

Some confrontations I wouldn't be too happy with. For example having a straight on a three flush board. Or having a non-nut straight. However, something like second set on non straight or flush board might be worth felting.

Normally in limit you don't think much about your stack size. However, if either me or villain was shortstacked, I might be inclined to felt one of us if the situation looked good. And at times, some villains have a good hand and are willing to hit the felt (if it's close) and then hit the road.

And of course finally, it depends a lot on the "maniac factor" of villain.