If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush games, check out Jonathan Little’s elite training site at PokerCoaching.com.
The ante and rake structure of the game you are playing should impact your strategy quite a bit. If you treat all no-limit hold’em games the same, you will leave a lot of money on the table.
When there is no ante and also a rake, the pots you are fighting for are somewhat small. This is usually the case in low-stakes cash games where rake is taken out of each pot, and the impact is quite large pertaining to which hands you can defend from the big blind.
Suppose the cutoff raises to 2.75 big blinds out of their 100 big blind stack and everyone folds to you in the big blind. With no ante and a rake, assuming your opponent plays well, you can only defend with 28% of hands. Compare that to a tournament with a 1 big blind ante and a no rake, where you can defend with 76% of hands!
28% of hands includes 2-2+, A-2 suited+, A-9 offsuit+, K-2 suited+, K-10 offsuit+, Q-5 suited+, Q-J offsuit, J-8 suited+, 10-7 suited+, 9-6 suited+, 8-5 suited+, 6-4 suited+, and 4-3 suited.
76% of hands includes all pairs and suited hands, A-2 offsuit+, K-2 offsuit+, Q-4 offsuit+, J-7 offsuit+, 10-7 offsuit+, 9-7 offsuit+, 8-6 offsuit+, 7-5 offsuit+, 6-4 offsuit+, 5-3 offsuit+ and 4-3 offsuit.
You will find that almost all players defend their big blind with far more than 28% of hands when facing a raise, which will make it difficult for them to win in the long run.
In both of these ranges, you should three-bet (reraise) with your best hands as well as a smattering of your suited connectors. If you only three-bet with your best hands, you will be easy to play against because it will be obvious to your opponent that you have a premium holding when you three-bet.
It is also worth noting how small blind strategy changes when there is a rake and no ante. When someone raises before you, you should only three-bet or fold.
You should not call with any hand from the small blind because you are not closing the action and a chunk of the pot will be raked away. You will also entice the big blind to call, resulting in you having the worst position in a three-handed pot.
By three-betting, you win the pot before the flop some portion of the time (and thus pay no rake in most venues), and when you get called, you will usually be heads-up and the pot will be large such that the rake is more negligible (assuming the rake is capped).
As the rake becomes a larger percentage of the pot, you should further tighten your ranges because the pots you are fighting for are smaller. In games with an uncapped rake, you should play extremely tight.
Despite this, you will often see many players in these games seeing every flop to try to make a strong hand. These players are close-to-guaranteed to lose because their money is being consistently raked away. The only way to beat a game with a high rake is to play an extremely tight strategy such that you rarely actually pay the rake and you win most of the pots you play.
Simply put, as your pot odds get worse, you must play tighter ranges.
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Jonathan Little is a WSOP bracelet winner, two-time WPT winner, and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with $9 million million in live tournament earnings. He is a best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and the 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.
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