Fourth Raise Means Aces
There’s a semi-common proverb in Texas Holdem, which states that if your opponent puts in a fourth raise, he’s got aces. While obviously this is not true against all kinds of poker players, as some are more wiling than others to stick it all with a variety of hands, usually even the wilder players who see a bet, raise, and get reraised, will often just call there even with hands like AK or 10/10 (unless they are just wild) because they are capable of putting their opponents on the aces themselves. If your opponent, then, when it gets back around to him, is reraising you rather than folding or just calling, you need to seriously, in your head, consider your options, and even if you decide to see a flop, know that if you can’t beat aces, you are behind.
The reasoning behind this method is pretty clear: that if you don’t have the nuts you aren’t going to keep pushing the action when your opponent makes it clear he has a huge hand by coming in for that third raise. It’s just too much gamble to keep forcing the action when you don’t have bullets.
This of course is assuming that you aren’t a table with poker drunks, or with people who are there just to gamble regardless, which definitely happens, though for the most part the fourth raise is a solid indicator of extreme strength. Depending on how deep your stacks are, how far along you are in a tournament, how many chips your opponent has in relation to you, and et cetera, it becomes possible to lay down hands like JJ and AK in that spot, and even maybe once or twice in your career, god forbid, dumping pocket kings.
