Calling A Raise

Poker Articles

26/10/2009

Calling a Raise from the Blind

You should be lucky if no one ever raises on your blind bet. It’s like just seeing the flop for free, and then you act on the next move. When the opponent does raise it is different. There are many things that the player can now take note of. The person who raises is just telling everyone that he has a big hand. The situation, where no one still hasn’t called a blind bet still remains the same. The player who is on or near the button will most likely raise. If you were to call from the blind position, you will have to make the first move on each betting round. You can re-raise every time with quite a big hand, but this would give your opponents some extra information. The thing about raising from the blind is that you are letting the others know that you have a powerful hand. If you want to see the flop and then decide on whether you want to keep on playing, you would do this; you would call from the late position and at the same time, hold on to a suited hand like 9-8. Let’s just say that the flop turns out to be 9-8-4, you have two pair and it is hidden, so you would not have to worry. Now your opponent, who is in the blind and made a raise, just gave you the sign that he has a powerful hand. Like we said before, now your opponent, will have to make the first move on every betting round. The bad thing about this for him/her is that they have no idea on how strong your hand is, until they get run over.

When your opponent does make the bet, you can just call the flop and raise on the turn if a good card comes through. If you are not in no-limit game, you would notice that players would not really release their aces or kings when they are raised. Even if they know that they are beaten, they will still call it. In a no-limit game, the situation is as this; the opponent has no idea what you have and how powerful it is, but you have an idea of what he has. Mainly, low-mid limit poker players will not let go of a large pair. On the other hand, no-limit poker players will release pairs of kings or aces. What you can do is; you can check-raise from the blind, only when you think you have the best hand. This is a good strategy because when a player checks large hands in the blind, the opponents won’t have a clue about the strength of the hand. You could have anything; this is a free play in the blind! An example could be like this; a 7-2 unsuited is just as common as an A-K. So, remember to take note when a player raises in the blind, and you should try check-raising when you can, with an exceptional hand.