Raising Preflop to Get a Read
I was playing at a Sit N Go online poker game last night at Everest Poker when I got a nice little reminder of why it’s a good idea to enter a hand with a bet instead of just limping in.
I was on the button and everyone folded before the flop to me. With any other poker hand, I would have bet a few times the big blind and hoped to take in the blinds, but I was sitting on pocket Aces, and I wanted to slow play them. The small blind folded, making me lament the small pot a bit more, and the big blind checked, so I grudgingly waited for the flop. It was 5-J-9, with no flush possibility, so I checked and hoped that this guy had paired something. The turn was a Queen, and my opponent raised, so I figured he paired his Queen, so I pushed him all in. I was getting ready to rake in my pot, but then I saw that he had a King-10. He had me beat with a straight.
If I had entered the hand with a raise and he called, I would have had an idea about the strength of his cards and I could have been on the lookout for a high straight draw on the flop. By limping in, I didn’t give myself any clue about how strong his hands were.