Spewing in poker refers to a player that loses money by being overly aggressive, and gets his overplayed hand beaten by a better hand. Sometimes the term can also refer to loose call downs, when a player calls his opponents even though he has a bad hand.
In this article you will learn how to stop spewing money pre-flop, by approaching the right strategy and by looking at the correct poker hand chart. The pre-flop is basically the foundation of a winning hand. Many professional players are recommending to play the pre-flop tightly but also aggressively.
When you are in the “under the gun” position and have a hand that falls in the 8% of playable hands, you should always raise instead of simply calling. With a poker calculator we can find out that the top 8% of hands are 99+, ATs+, KQs, AJo+ and KQo.
Another good strategy with one of these hands is to re-raise. So you initially call UTG, and when someone else raises you re-raise their bet. You should use this one sparingly though, and only when you are sure that someone else will notice your limp and do a raise.
The main aim of raising UTG is to stop players with weak hands to stay in the game thanks to a low bet and also to allow you to play against opponents with a narrower range.
In order to stop spewing money pre-flop, you can also take a look at the poker hand chart found in this article. It gives you detailed instructions on the cards you can raise with, depending on the position you are in (UTG, early position, middle position or late position).
Analyze the chart thoroughly and try to get some valuable lessons from it, but keep in mind that everything in poker is subjective. There are no strategies that ALWAYS win. You should analyze the players around and adapt accordingly.
One of the ways to figure out whether to call or to raise is to look for broadcasting signs at other players at the table. This means that they are giving signs regarding their hand. For example, some players take some chips in their hand and are ready to bet before their turn even comes. Others hold their cards without any care if they have a weak hand, showing that they will fold.
There are various other signs that a player might give and you need to watch out for them. When you receive your cards don’t look at them right away. But take a few seconds to look at the other players’ reactions when they look at their cards.
There are many more other useful tips and strategies to play the pre-flop and you can read all about them in this article. Here you will also find the hand chart we talked about earlier and more details on how to spot broadcasting.
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