Tags:
Advanced, Beginners, Hold' em, Intermediate, Limit Pot Limit, Multi-table tournaments, No Limit
There are three decisions you will typically have to be concerned with pre-flop. The first is how much should you raise when you are opening the action. For the most part, this will depend on what your goal with raising is. Are you looking to build a pot or do you want your opponents to fold? If you're a loose aggressive player, you probably want to see a lot of flops and induce a lot of action and thus a smaller opening raise such as two to three times the big blind is better.
If you're a tight aggressive player, you probably want your raises to generate respect and build larger pots with your premium hands if people do choose to play with you so three to four times the big blind is a good starting point. But bear in mind the players in front of you and how big a raise they are willing to call with marginal hands. As always in poker, be observant.
Punishing limpers
The second decision is how much to raise when there have been players that have limped into the pot. Often, players have a hard time folding once they have put chips into the pot so you need to be aware of this when making a raise in these instances. Usually players are limping in with hands that they want to see cheap flops with. How much you raise should be a matter of whether you want them to call or not. If you have A-K, for example, you probably want to raise enough to take it down right there. However, if you have pocket Aces or Kings, you probably don't mind a call from a hand like 8-7 suited or pocket 4's and should make a smaller raise.
The last type of bet to be concerned with is how much to raise when you are already facing a raise. The problem most people make here is not raising enough or raising too much. Not raising enough invites action you don't necessarily want. You don't want to give a player with A-10 3:1 on their money to call you when you have pocket kings. Raising too much can make the pot too large and will make your post-flop decisions extremely difficult.
One last consideration you should account for is how much do you need to raise in order to accomplish your objectives? If raising to just three times the big blind will get everyone to fold, then there is no reason to raise to four or five times the big blind. This is why late in tournaments when the blinds are so high relative to players stack sizes that you will see a 2-2.5 times the big blind raise working effectively.
Up next: Bet Sizing - on the flop