Facing a Raise in Early or Middle Position at a Loose FL Hold'em Game

This is a tough spot, only really good hands can take the heat in this situation. Someone has already raised and there are many players yet to speak.

Cold-calling raises is not a sound part of a winning strategy. It is a widely accepted truism that “you should fold or raise” or put as “calling is not a winning strategy”. Then cold-calling – calling two or more bets when you have not yet invested any money – should be looked upon as a big no-no.

This might seem to be contradicted by all the green that is shown in the table below (that only shows the hands that should be played against a raise from early- and middle position). This many hands may not be part of a conservative approach. But it is not about being conservative. It is about winning, and these hands will win more than their fair share.

To enter a pot after a raise from early- or middle position your starting hand has to do well in a large pot. Pocket pairs are great in large pots. The investment of two small bets preflop is most often well paid off by the river when you hit trips on the flop. If you suspect that this won’t be the case, then you should consider folding. There is a difference between holding 3 3 when there has been a raise and a cold-call in front of you and when all five players in front of you has folded. In the first case, cold-calling becomes a good play because of the imminent large pot. Despite that it is cheaper to see a flop, the same hand should probably be folded in the second case.

The other hand category that really enters the mix now is big suited hands. All suited Broadway (apart from QTs) should be played. Broadway means that both cards are ten or higher, thereby enabling the nut straight using both hole cards. These suited Broadway do well in this situation due to two reasons.

The most wonderful course of events, is when the board cards help you to a big flush. With the respectable high card potential of Broadway cards, you could have a decent holding along the way while foremost hoping for a flush. The second reason that suited Broadway does well, is the decent high card potential. You will often get top pair with a strong kicker. For the smaller suited Broadway cards this kicker is far from unbeatable, sometimes you will have given yourself a difficult post-flop decision.

The straight potential is a significant contributor to making the suited Broadway cards profitable. That does not make the offsuit Broadway cards playable though. The only offsuit hand added at this stage is AQo. It has enough high card potential to compensate for their lack of common suit, other hands do not. To play eg A J or K Q from early- and middle position is not profitable.

Note that the table says that the same hands should be played from early position as from middle position. That is because hands do not rise in value as much as in tighter games. Being in early position also allows you to occasionally protect a hand with a check-raise after a bet from the button, middle position rarely allows this play.