Pre-flop Raises Protect Your Big Pocket Hands
Raising before the flop is often used as a tactic for aggressive online poker players to put their opponents on the run, it can also be used to defend stronger poker online hands from weaker hands. At some point, every poker player will feel the frustration of seeing his pocket Aces being outdrawn by a 5-4 off-suit. A good pre-flop raise will go a long way towards preventing this.
If you get a high pocket pair (let’s say Aces), you are in a good spot, but there’s no guarantee that your hand will hold up to the river. Although pocket Aces have a good percentage of winning the hand, there is always a chance that the flop will come out 3-8-King, and if you let him see the flop for free, the guy in the big blind position with 3-8 will suddenly have the drop on you.
A good-sized raise before the flop will usually chase out the players who have lower ranking starter hands, so when you get a good starting online poker hand, feel free to chase out the majority of the table with a big raise. That will not only reduce your chances of a suck-out after the flop, but if anyone calls, you’ll know that they’ve got a pretty good starting hand as well.
