BOTL76

Truly a rookie in poker, just started playing a few months ago and found this site to try and find some expert advice.

You experts will get lots of laughs from me, so let's get that out of the way first

Enjoy playing cash games, recently going to live $1/$2 poker rooms.

A few rookie questions to start. Appreciate your responses!

A-2-3-4-5 is this a winning straight in Hold-em or not? Should you raise if you have this hand pre-river?

For a $1/$2 game, others are raising $6 or $12, and then some players on different hands raise $5, $15 (flop, turn, river etc). My question is it standard in this game to raise $6 and $12 pre-flop or pre-turn?

Thanks!

DrTyore

Quick answers:

Yea, A2345 is a straight, though depending on what is on the board, it may not be the BEST straight - eg. board is 345 and you have A2, you have a straight, but anyone with 2-6 or 6-7 has a better hand.

As for the raising amounts, that always seems to depend on the game, sometimes 2-3x the Big Blind is the standard, sometimes 5-7 times... adjust your betting to fit.

Mark

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BOTL76

Thank you Mark!

Getting back to the raises, I have witnessed raises again of $6 and then $12. But when someone raises $5 or $15 or $25, is this just simple strategy of a nice round number and is this not good poker etiquette? I raised $25 once and got some dirty looks, I guess I really was a rookie at the table! The pot was about $40 when I raised 25.

Thanks!

Milo

You bet 2/3 of the pot . . . standard.

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TheBowlBoy

It isn't bad etiquette. You have to play your hand with your own best interests in mind. The dirty looks were probably coming from players that didn't want to put in any more money to see a flop. I don't know if this was preflop or not but it sounds like it. If it was I would have raised to like $50 assuming you were 3betting somebody who opened to around $10 with a few callers.

trigs

standard preflop bets tend to be 3x the BB for the original raiser. if someone reraises them preflop the standard is 3x the original raise. obviously not set in stone though.

post flop is very different and depends on many different factors. usually though you do not want to bet less than 50% of the total pot.

EDIT: yeah i was referring to online, sorry. live is usually more loose.

moose

Live 1/2 cash games, if you raise only 3x - a) you will laughed at b) you will induce every person at the table to call you c) any small stack of <$100 will probably just shove

4-8x minimum

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getem76

at 1/2 the raises vary alot depending what and whom is at the table, the lower the stakes the different bet sizing becomes, when you go out to 2-5 things become a bit more regular then 3-6 and 5-10 respectibly.....as for people looking at you with a strange raise, they are trying more to understand, if your casino hopping, you should try to care less about what they think of you and more what you think of them and the cards they have....if you piss them off really whats the big deal, you dont know them ITS A CASINO!!! now of course at a home game thats a far far different look at it

i guess the real answer is something, like position play and what you want in the pot, usually $8-$10 is pretty safe if your early position to ditch the bad hands, $6-$8 in a later position....this doesnt work for all tables and fields, its easier to get a feel for them first orbit and not so much sit-out but try not to be too active

BOTL76

Thanks guys. The more I have thought about it, the more I realized I was playing tight at the table and that was my first raise of the day after about an hour at the table. I guess I was an easy read?

Stupid question: what is a shove?

Thanks guys

BOTL76

Another one for you:
when is a hand a split pot and when is a hand a winner with a higher kicker between two or more players?

getem76

a shove is code for "all in" or getting your chips in the middle fast as you can

a split pot is either the same hand or hands that equal the same value with whats on board, as per higher kicker if say you both have one pair, or top...the other card in your hand usually takes value, the higher card is the winner, not including cards on board counterfitting it

BOTL76

Thanks Getem,

So if I have A6 and the person I am playing against has A8 (let's say same suit) what hand would we split the pot or would he always beat me with the 8 kicker?

Thanks!

compuease

Remember it's the best 5 card hand from all 5 cards on board and your own 2. So in your example if the board ran out A, 10, J, 9, 2. It would be a split as you would both have A,A,10,J,9. If the board ran out A,10,J,7,2, he would have the best hand with A,A,10,J,8 since you would have A,A,10,J,7.. Understand?

BOTL76

That helps and thanks for the example, really clarifies things for this old rookie