Poker Lesson 19: Why Not to Raise Out of the Blind

Some things are just bad ideas, for example, poking the bouncer at your favorite dance club in the chest with your forefinger while making negative remarks about his mother. This is a bad idea, especially when all you have to defend yourself with is some slurred insults and a blood alcohol level of .10. Other notable bad ideas were leg warmers, metrosexuals and the years between 1969 and 1980. All of these can be deleted from society without any harm to the culture as a whole. Another idea that is generally considered a bad one, from the perspective of good poker playing, is raising from the blinds.

The first big problem with raising out of the blinds is the effect it has on the pot odds. You may be holding a pair of kings while in the big blind, and four other players have called before it is your turn to act. There will now be five bets in the pot. If you simply call on the flop, your opponents will be looking at approximately 6-to-1 pot odds to call. Somebody who is holding a hand like and Ace/9 combo against your pair kings will be about a 7-to-1 underdog if the flop comes out something like a J-10-5. Calling on the flop will not be in their best interests. A smart player will simply just fold.

If you raise out of the blind, instead of just calling, it is unlikely that any of your opponents will fold. This will make the pot grow from five bets, in a situation where everyone called, to ten bets sitting in the middle of the table. That same guy with the ace/9 combo will not fold because the pot odds are about 11-1 to call you on the flop. With two more cards to come, this player just needs one ace to show up on the turn or river to beat you. Do you really want to encourage an opponent to chase you? Raising from the blind will change the pot odds to something more attractive and enable a situation where your opponent will get lucky. You can control your play, but not luck. Why even open the door to that X factor.

Another reason to avoid raising from the blind is that people are cheap. You, me, everyone has some frugal bone in their body that sends them to Wal-mart instead of Lord & Taylor. It also means that folks who have limped into a multi-way pot want the flop to cost them as little as possible. Raising from the blinds makes seeing the flop expensive, and this may cause hard feelings. If this happens enough they may take it personally. Do you really want just about every player calling your all the way to the last card just to annoy you? If this happens you had better be holding some impressive cards.

Holding your fire from the blinds will help your bet on the flop. Let's say your are holding a pair of Queens, and flop comes out as a J-8-7. Coming out betting from your position will look more dangerous. If you raise out of the blind before the flop comes, your hand may not get nearly as much respect. Your opponent may think you are bluffing and attempt to run you to ground.

Percentagely speaking, if it's you and your QQ against your four opponents' holding A9, K10, 66 and J9, you have a 35% chance of winning the pot on a flop of J-7-8. If you force the A9 and the 66 to fold on the flop, you will have a 51% chance of winning the pot. By raiseing before the flop, you may just tick these players off, especially if you have made a habit of such behavior, and they will try to run you down. When the river comes you will be facing "true odds" on your hand.

The third reason is the most obvious. Quite simply, you are out of position when raising from the blind on all following betting rounds. Your opponents can cute with their raises and drawing free cards on the turn.

If you are holding a couple of kings out of the big blind, and you make the decision to raise. The flop comes out as a 7c-10d and a 7c. You bet and one opponent calls your bet. You have no idea what they have and it is very difficult for you to bet out of position on the turn. If the turn doesn't go the way you like, you will probably check. If your opponent has the flush draw or middle pair, you just gave them a free card as well as an opportunity to semi-bluff you. If somebody semi-bluffs on the turn they will probably carry on the bluff and try to just scare everyone out of the pot.

In short, raising out of the blinds is usually a bad idea. Like anything else, there is a time and place for it, but that is a different article altogether.