When You Are First In
The difference between tight and loose games as to whether you should bring it in with a raise or a call is extremely important.
A call will tend to promote multiway pots, but you usually should raise if you are hoping to narrow the field to three or fewer players.
If the game is loose, you can expect multiway pots whether you just call or bring it in with a raise.
In this situation, you should play according to what best fits your style. But if the game is loose and there is a lot of raising, you may want to just call to see who does the raising so you can gauge the strengths of the various hands.
If it is a loose game where players tend to call and not raise much, then with your better hands, you may want to bring it in with a raise.
This is because you will not gain much information when your opponents just call.
If you are playing in a tight game, you probably will bring it in for a raise most of the time, hoping to steal the blinds (and being happy to do so) or to play against only the blinds, who often will be weak.
Your raise frequently will drive out the players behind you.
Thus you most likely will be playing against the blinds, who will be out of position.
If you don’t bring it in with a raise, you are likely to find yourself caught in the middle, since there usually will be callers behind you (even though the game is tight), as well as the blinds.
This puts you in a tough situation. However, if you are playing well, you are likely to have the best hand or the best draw(s), which should compensate some for your poor position.
In general, you should not raise a lot unless the game is tight and you are confident that you can get in a heads-up confrontation.
When heads up, you should be able to outplay many of your weaker opponents.
Also, when playing heads up, you can win the high with very weak hands (such as a pair of tens), plus you can bluff players out since most of your opponents will play for low.
That is, if high cards come, a lot of players will be quick to fold their hands. some of your opponents automatically will throw away top pair and even two pair if they are heads up.
So when you flop two pair to top pair with an ace kicker, your bet sometimes will make your opponent fold, even when his hand is as good as yours or slightly better.
Introduction / General Concepts / Position / Low Hands / High Hands / Your Starting Hand / Starting With Big Pairs / When You Are First In / How To Play Your Hand / Play on the Flop / When Your Have the Best Hand / Afterthought
