Pre-Flop Raising in a Freeroll

Here's an area of discussion that should interest all. Let's first break the tournament down to three stages. The first stage we'll call the gauntlet because that's what you run with all the idiot boob tube fanatics watching highlights of previous events. This is the most dangerous stage of tourney play and covers about 80% of all entrants. Any raise strategy here is thrown out the door and useless in this stage because the majority of entrants don't care. They'll go all in with anything and call anything with anything or nothing. It's a hit or miss attitude of either I'm in or out and if I'm in it's going to be big or nothing. Moreover, blind value is too small to accomplish any meaningful worth to set a raise proportion during this stage. During this stage just do your best to survive. Second stage is when about 20% of entrants are left and this would be the pre-bubble stage as you aren't in the money but you've survived the gauntlet and now blinds have increased substancially as to have meaningful effect on everyones chip stack and to set a standard of value for raises which will effect the out come of hands for any showdown. This stage seperates experienced players from the amatures and decides who's going to the finish and who's not. As stated above blinds are now a major factor in determining the value of each players hand and should be each players focus for survival past the bubble and on to the final table. You still need to survive blinds and finish in the money. But what do you raise when you have a hand and want to reduce the odds against you to get there? The recommended raise by experienced players is three to four times the blind. This rate of increase will deter limpers and tight players from calling and if they do will sound an alarm to watch for and provide an escape for the raiser if the flop doesn't pan out without doing too much damage to their own chip stack. This stategy of raises should be exercised throughout the rest of the tourney as it provides the player a means of suppling needed chips to survive future blinds and can build a chip stack to finish past the bubble and on to the final table. The third stage is post bubble and getting to the final table. Raises here should be reduced to no more than three times the blind as now they are of substancial value and will effect your finish if used poorly or on badly timed hands during the preflop. If you've made it here you've demonstrated to all your opponents that you are a player to watchout for and now is not the time to regress to idiot raises and allins. Finishing first should be the only focus on your mind. Anything less is not acceptable and would send a wrong message to your opponents who just may have looked to you in a different light than they did awhile ago. You just earned their respect; keep it. This is mearly a guide to help you along and is not all inclussive. It should provide a base strategy to follow for your quest to win that elusive finish of first place. Any opinions or questions would be greatly appreciated for discussion.

Charlie

Vets Poker Vets Poker Blog