Preflop raising can work to your disadvantage if you are too predictable about it. If you only raise with Aces, a player may call you with anything just for the opportunity to hit a set, 2 pair, a straight, or a flush and take your whole chipstack. Of course if they miss the flop, they'll just throw their hand away and not pay you off. Limiting preflop raising to only big pairs will typically end up in either winning small pots or losing large ones when your opponents catch on to what you're doing.

Raising out of position can lead to big problems when you get alot of callers. Also, raising with marginal hands can result in catastrophic losses if you can't control bluffing off your stack or being trapped by a player with a better starting hand.


Effective Preflop Raising

The most effective way to utilize the preflop raise is to use it sparingly. That's not to say that you should only raise with big pairs, but you should take all of the factors at the table into consideration before deciding whether or not to raise. Consider the following before raising:

Your own table image - If you just caught a couple of big starting hands and raised the last couple of times out, another preflop raise here isn't usually going to be effective. Other players will believe that you are simply trying to bully the table, and will likely call you down or fight back with a re-raise of their own.

The image of the other players in the hand - If the player in the Big Blind never folds to a raise, no matter what kind of rags he's holding, then the purpose of the preflop raise has been eliminated, unless your only goal is to get lots of money into the pot.

Your hand strength - If you raise with raggedy starting hands, you're likely to get beat by someone with a bigger hand. The higher winning percentage hands you raise with, the more profitable the play will become over the long haul.

Your position in relation to the button - As a general rule of thumb, the weaker your table position is, the stronger your starting hand should be to raise with. When you have superior position, you can effectively raise with a wider variety of hands including suited connectors, one gappers, weak aces, and other suited cards.

As a rule, I will always (well maybe only 99% of the time) raise if I am the first player to enter a pot. This serves multiple purposes. If there are already a lot of limpers ahead of me, a preflop raise will often still end up getting called by multiple players, making a difficult multiway pot. At that point I can seriously re-evaluate my hand and determine how good of a chance this thing really has of winning in a multiway pot. If it's less likely to win, I'm more likely to throw it away. Additionally, this strategy helps me to throw away weaker drawing hands from out of position. If I'm afraid to throw a raise out there, it's usually a sign that my hand and position is weak and I should just toss my cards into the muck.

When I do raise with a drawing hand, such as a suited connector or a suited Ace, I improve my chances of either winning the blinds preflop or being able to set good prices for myself if I do hit a draw, because it will be done from position. Typically though, I like to wait to play my drawing hands against multiple opponents because I'll end up with better pot odds to draw to, so in those situations, since I'm not the first to enter the pot, I can go ahead and limp in.

By always raising when I'm first in, I tend to play tighter and throw more hands away when I take a 2nd look at them and say, "Nah! If it's not good enough to raise with, it's not good enough to play." Also, I don't fall into the trap of only raising with big pairs and becoming predictable to my opponents. Since I stick to a tight aggressive game, my raises are respected and feared. After all, am I raising with 78 suited just because everyone else folded, or am I really holding Aces? It's enough to make opponents a little nervous.

Below or some general Texas Hold em poker starting hands charts. When it comes to selecting a starting hand, a chart serves as a nice reference point for those who need somewhere to start. Keep in mind though that you want to find a formula of starting hands in poker that suits your particular style of play and is profitable for you.