Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelvis
I don't understand the "so". You have aces, that's a pretty strong hand, why is so natural to call a minraise?
It isn't. I realize, a huge mistake in LLSNL. Probably even online, but with all the aggression I thought I was being savvy. (I'd win what I thought were good sized pots not realizing I could have had even bigger pots.) Now I have a clear rationale for why we raise and re-raise preflop: to reduce the number of callers and narrow their ranges. We do this even if we aren't raising for value (i.e., a bluff). As I'm getting more into ranges and how to use them, I get the hunch that betting/raising postflop has additional uses, such as attacking our opponents' perceived ranges on a bluff or polarizing our own.
It was not my first time playing live. I think it was my 6th or 7th session, at around 20 hours total. Yes, short sessions, because so far I find it mentally tiring and I like to mull over what I've learned.
Because the guy who raised $4 was raising different amounts pre-flop, that number stuck out (even at the time) because it was so low. I think if I had re-raised him on the flop (say $50) he would either have re-raised me or called me and check-raised me on the turn. In the latter case I'm already all-in, but in the former case I'd still have some chips left. Given the range of TT, JJ, and KQ, a better player than I am might have used the small $4 pre-flop raise to put him on KQ and folded.