Can I raise the blinds without seeing my cards?

Question

In texas holdem

Can anyone raise the blinds without seeing the cards ? and if so does everyone have to match that blind to see cards ?

Answer 1

Can anyone raise the blinds without seeing the cards?

Yes!

and if so does everyone have to match that blind to see cards ?

Yes!

Blinds are bets like any other. You have to call the blind to continue in a hand. You can also raise the blind just like any other bet. If the blind has been raised you may fold, call or re-raise just like with any other bet.

The blinds are not antes, they are bets made before the cards are dealt. As soon as the blinds are posted and the first card is dealt, the action can start. If the first guy to act wants to raise without looking at his cards he may. There are no rules that affect this accept the players most act in turn. A player can raise for whatever reason they want.

There are also blind straddles, generally speaking a blind raise of at least double the big blind. Rules vary, generally a straddle is just an optional blind. If you see this going on in a game, please inquire, there are many variable to the rules of straddling and are totally a local thing.

Rules about betting are not exclusive to Texas Hold-em. Texas Hold'em is just one of thousands of poker games that has betting that uses blinds. You asked, "in Texas Hold'em..." Your question is about betting in poker. It has nothing to do with Texas Hold'em other then that Hold'em is a form of poker. So in Hold'em, it does not matter, your playing poker and the answer is in the context for poker.

Answer 2

You can always bet blind. This can/should be done on your own turn to act. There are different type of straddles which are blind bets but it does not mean that the players need to pay more to see their cards. It just means that the players that act after the straddle need to match that bet to continue with the hand.

Answer 3

Yes you can. There is no rule that says you have to look at your cards before taking an action in poker. And also yes, everyone else will have to match your bet to continue. It doesn't really make any sense to raise the blinds without looking at your hand though. You are just giving the rest of the table free information that you have a random hand.

Answer 4

As the other answers point out: Yes and Yes.

However, I might want to add "why" would one want to do this. Generally, raising blind is bad form - especially against seasoned players. There is, IMHO, a time and place where it's good play to do this.

There are two different types of "raise" to be considered. An "all-in" raise and a relatively standard raise (like 3x-5x BB).

One slightly reasonable time to do this is simply to bully or quasi-bully other players. In this case, where you are certainly not using information provided by your hole cards, you are trying to get information about your opponents by seeing what they will do when you pull a "bully stunt." Usually being a bully just for the sake of being a bully will end badly for you - I generally don't recommend it. However, if you are in late position, you have tight players on your left and you are deep enough to handle dumping the hand, then it might be a good play from an EV perspective. Remember, when you raise without looking at your hold cards (blind), the other players have no idea what you have. You could have J4os or pocket rockets - who knows. If they call, then they have no idea if the flop favors you and if they come over the top (like one should do to a bully), you then look at your cards (simply for show) and then you come over the top again. Unless they have a monster, it's hard for your opponent to call. This is re-raising "with air." This is a little more gamesmanship then I like to play, but it can be effective.

If you are going to consistently fire in a raise on the button to attempt to bully the blinds out, then why bother looking. I mean, you might just to pretend, but come on, does it matter what the cards are? It's just another other level of gaming the traditionally button-bully scenario. If a short-stack in the blinds then calls your crappy raise, then you actually might have pot-odds to call the re-raise regardless of what cards you have. Again, why bother looking.

However, in tournament play, there is a time where looking at your hole cards is meaningless. That's when you are a super short-stack (like 3-6 BBs) and you simply have to go all-in and win a pot big enough to realistically play on. You certainly try to do this with as few opponents as possible - preferably in late position. In this scenario it makes no difference what your cards are - why bother looking at them. Just go all-in and hope for the best (and everyone reading this intimately knows this moment in a tournament). I try to keep my hand blind until showdown because I can't stand to know that I may have lost on the flop, turn or river and I like to be surprised when I turn my cards over at showdown. I have snapped off AA with something like a J4os - yea long odds, but so what.

An exception to this is when you are trying to "not be the next one out" because of the bubble or a big bump in prize money. Then it's reasonable to be content with being "blinded out."

Answer 5

The answer depends on where you are, whether you're playing online or in a brick and mortar card room.

If you're playing online, no, unless you're good at clicking the "raise" button with your eyes closed.

In a card room, what you're describing is called a "straddle" bet and some rooms allow it, and some don't. In my area, they allow straddle bets only if you would have been the next player to act in the normal course of betting. In Vegas card rooms, larger rooms typically allow straddles from nearly any position.

Usually straddling makes a game play 'bigger' than it is. That's a good thing if you're playing deep stacks and you are better than your opponents or you're playing short stacks, and you're not as good as your opponents. If you're evenly matched with your opponents, find a better game.