Phil Gordon shares his observations about mini-raises, and advises you on how to play when you're being bullied, and how to play yourself when you have a monster in your hands. Let's say you're sitting at a table and playing no-limit Hold'em, the blinds are $0.5/1. The cards are being dealt, you are in the middle position, all the players before you have said pass. You find that your hand – a couple of pocket Tens – is a great hand, and you raise the standard three big blinds, everyone passes, except the guy in the far position, who overestimates by a very small amount. I've seen this kind of player all the time over the last few months playing at low betting limits (for writing the book), and every time I've come across such a minimal re-raise, it's meant that I've been up against either pocket Kings or Aces. A player who makes such minimal raises may think that he is doing the right thing, saying that he is sweating some more money, being confident of his victory. But in my opinion, this is the wrong strategy for two reasons: the first is that he's just shouting what kind of hand he has, and you know that it's much easier to make the right decisions when you know exactly what kind of hand an opponent has; the second reason is mathematical, my opponent gives me 5 to 1, to say a count (in the example above, my extra $2 will give me a chance to win $10), and when I accept his re-raise, I know I can win a very big pot. So, if my opponent started the game with a pot of $ 100, and I get, for example, another Ten from the flop, then most likely the opponent's pot will pass into my hands. So in such cases, I say "stake" and see what comes out on the flop. If there is no Ten on the table, consider that I have finished my draw, but if there is, then, as I said, I will bankrupt the opponent. That's because I knew exactly what the opponent's hand was from the beginning. How do you play pocket Aces when your opponent raises? Make a sweat-sized re-raise. Put pressure on a player who has a great hand but a worse one than yours. Who knows, maybe if he's holding pocket Ladies or a Big Slick, he'll go all-in before the flop. You have to be very careful when you encounter these kinds of boosts at other stages of the game. For example, you raised to the flop with a Big Slick and one player accepted your raise. The flop goes K-8-4, making you a top pair with the best kicker. You make a bet the size of a pot, and your opponent takes it and overestimates it by a little bit. This may mean that your opponent has won the set from the flop, as he understands what kind of hand you have, so he makes such a small increase, practically forcing you to accept his bet. My advice here is to pass. You should avoid taking small raises, except, of course, when you have a full house or square. In general, such a mini-raise probably means that your opponent has a super hand. Pakistani players can instantly earn a 100% deposit match bonus of up to Rs55,000 when they use the 1xbet promo code get free bet bonus. I highly rate the 1xBet welcome bonus, but some bigger bonuses are available from competitors. For example, Stake.com has a 200% deposit bonus of up to $3000 (exclusive to our users) and BC.Game offers a massive welcome package over four deposits totalling $220,000.
Beware of minimal re-raises
