Recently, I have been focusing a lot on the part of my game where I am mostly auto-piloting, trying to look for spots where I burn money or don’t maximize my value. I have found min-raising preflop to be one such spot.

Most players in my games usually raise about 32-35% of their holdings when it’s folded to them on the button (BU) or cut-off (CO). They often get re-raised (3bet) and as a result most of them only raise 2.5x in these positions to minimize their losses when they get 3bet. I have experienced a bit with both as I feel that 2.5x-raising induces a bit more aggression from the players behind me. However, 2.5x still seems to be the best long-term expected value raise.

As with every other situation in poker the answer to any question is “it depends”, and this is obviously also true here. If both the players in the blinds are huge fish (i.e they have a very high calling percentage preflop)I raise my good hands 3-4x or even more and fold most of my marginal holdings.

So to the great point of this post: I seldom see people min-raising and this is something I have added to my game. There are several situations when a min-raise can be perfect, e.g the obvious spot when you have nits in the blinds. Why risk 2.5-3 big blinds when you can only risk 2? Of course, their calling ranges widens, but they are so nitty by nature that it will not effect them much.

Another spot when I have found min-raising to work pretty effieciently is when there are one or two aggressive players behind me. I believe players are less likely to 3bet when they only gain my 2 big blinds + the 1.5 already in the pot, but if they do decide to re-raise and my hand isn’t strong enough to continue, I’ve lost less. If I get bluffed more 2.5x-raising than if I min-raise, why would I 2.5x-raise my marginal hands?

Remember, before you decide to min-raise in late position it is important that you have some kind of picture of the players acting after you. The good players will pick up on your new trend and adjust accordingly so it is crucial that you pay attention and min-raise carefully Hopefully, it will be a nice addition to your game!

After a terribly dissapointing February, I took most of March off, trying to get my mind off of poker for a while. I only had 3 sessions before March 24th when I picked up the pace again and played 7 out of the 8 remaining days. You might say that this was another loosing month, but thank God for rakeback .

Also, as I proclaimed in “Time to Clear a Bonus“, I’m clearing a bonus . I started on March 28th and will hopefully finish by the end of April (yeah, it’s a big bonus to clear!). I’ve also set a goal to make 1500 big blinds while clearing (2ptbb/100 for those who are interested), and I’m already well underway and ahead of pace:

Cleared: 120$/1000$ – 12%
Profit: 219.8bb/1500bb – 14.65%

I’m updating this small challenge consistently on Twitter so you can follow me there if you’d like more updates!

I’m rooting for April to be an amazing month! Not only will I hopefully complete my mini-challenge, but I’m going to Riga to play in the Norwegian Championship! My bet is that the April Monthy Report will look amazing

Until next time, good luck at the tables and with life in general!