Min-raises in poker

There are plenty of different strategies and tactical methods which are able to help you get the edge over your opponents at poker tables. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find universal ready strategy so you will have to work a lot on your game and imply certain concepts, look at their effectiveness and use them when you need it.

Today we are going to introduce one of the poker concepts called min-raise.

Let’s start with its definition

Minraise is a poker bet that is of the minimum amount specified at each particular table/tournament.. In other words, min raise is the bet that twice bigger than the bet of the opponent. The size of the min raise is usually 2x the big blind.

This concept is applied in two cases:

• On the button (more info is available at positions in poker article), when everyone else folded, to steal the blinds
• To get few chips out of the stack of the opponent in the situation when he is almost surely behind due to the fact that the size of such a bet gives him good pot odds to call even when he has a mediocre hand

It is worth noting that currently min-raises became some sort of default action in the arsenal of almost all the players. Min-raises should be used/implemented in your strategy. You shouldn’t neglect them at least for one reason - they allow to win pots with the lower investments from your side.

Let’s consider a small example: you play in the tournament and the current blind level is 200/400 with 50 ante. You are on the button with    . All the players in front of you folded their cards. There are 200+400+50*9 = 1050 chips in the pot already. If you make min-raise of 800 chips, you have to win the pot in 43% of cases so that your move become profitable. At the same time 3x raise has to be successful 53% of the times.

As you see, it is profitable to use min-raises as you get to take the pot for a cheaper price. As we all know, the cheaper we get some action, the more profitable it is in the long run. One more advantage of this action is in that even if your min-raise will be called you will be able to get the pot with the continuation bet and the size of this bet will be smaller than it would have been had you raised 3x.

In what other situations min-raises can be used?

Min-raises can also be used in the following situations:

• When you have nuts and know that your opponent doesn’t have a strong hand. In that case min-raise is the biggest sizing possible which will help you to get at least some chips from the opponent’s stack.
• Min-raises are solid against the aggressive opponents. Those aggressors think that min-raise means weakness and try to get you off the hand with the help of re-raises. Against those opponents min-raise should be used only when you really have a strong hand
• Min-raises work good in multi-way pots with weak players when you have nuts and someone made a bet and other player or players called it. You can use min-raise to blow the pot up as at least one of these players will add this “small” amount to the pot. In result, the pot size will get bigger. And at the later betting rounds you will be able to make bigger size bets which will give you more profit in the end.