Raising/Check-raising
Many players raise in poker without really thinking about what they are
trying to achieve.
There are several reasons why you might raise:
-
You feel you have the best chance at winning the pot. If you have a strong
hand or a very strong draw, you can raise to get more money in the pot.
-
You want your opponents to fold their drawing hands, or make a mistake by
calling. When you have a good hand that is vulnerable to future cards, you
might raise so that your opponents will either fold or make a mistake by
calling when they are not getting good pot odds.
-
You are getting good pot odds to try a bluff or semi-bluff. You might raise as
either a bluff or semi-bluff hoping that your opponents will fold a better hand.
-
You want to try for a free card. Free cards are discussed in in a following part,
but they are usually won after a raise on the flop. The idea is that you
demonstrate strength on the flop, hoping that everybody will check to
you on the turn. You can then elect to play the turn for "free."
-
You want to determine the strength of your hand relative to your opponents.
Consider raising to gain information if you are unsure whether or not you
have the best hand and you don't have a lot of outs. Many players simply call
down to the river with mediocre hands only to lose 2 1/2 big bets on the
hand, the two bets on the turn and river plus the call on the flop. A cheaper
option is to raise and then fold if you gain good information that you are
against a strong hand. For example, you call a raise with A3s in the big blind
and the flop is A75. If you check-raise against a strong opponent and he
reraise, you can usually fold your weak kicker against most opponents.
Let's discuss the second point in a little more detail, as it is an important concept.
Advanced Concept: One goal in poker is to give your opponents
opportunities to make mistakes.
When your opponents are correct to call just a single bet, raising is sometimes a
good strategy to decrease your opponents' pot odds and force them to either fold or
make a mistake by calling. Let's look at a common example.
You hold A ♥ Q ♦ on the button and raise preflop.
Five players see a flop Q ♣ T ♦ 5 ♠.
There is $100 in the pot in a $10-$20 game. What should you do if the cutoff bets?
The best strategy is to raise. You probably have the best hand, which is one reason
to raise. More importantly, raising will force some of the remaining opponents to
either fold or make a mistake by calling. An opponent would be correct to draw to a
gut-shot straight for only one bet with hands like AJ, K9, and J8. He is 11 to 1
against improving and would have 12 to 1 pot odds if you only call; however, if you
raise to $20 his pot odds are now only 6.5 to 1 ($130 total pot divided by $20 bet).
By raising, opponents with gut-shot draws should fold: otherwise, they are making a mistake by calling.
Note how you raise with the intention of driving out an opponent with a gut-shot
draw, but you actually prefer that he calls since calling would be a mistake. You will
lose to this opponent once every 12 hands, but you will more than make up for that
one loss by all the extra bets you earn the other 11 hands. This is a perfect
example of why bad beat hands are not so disastrous. When an opponent draws to
a hand that he shouldn't, yet still wins, think of all the extra bets you are
earning on the times when he doesn't hit his hand.
If one of your opponents has KQ, he has three outs to the king, which is 15 to 1
against improving. If you just call, your opponent is making a slight mistake since
his pot odds are 12 to 1; however, calling a single bet is not too bad since he will
probably earn some more bets if he hits his king. If you raise, your opponent should
fold or he will make a big mistake by calling with pot odds of only 6.5 to 1.
An opponent holding JT has five outs to beat you, which is 8 to 1 against improving.
He would be correct to call just one small bet on the flop; however, your raise again
forces him to either fold or make a mistake by calling with pot odds of only 6.5 to 1.
It is very important to protect your hand, and raising is often a good weapon to do
this. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in poker is giving your opponents a
chance to beat you without charging him a price to do so. Players who make the
fewest mistakes make the most money, so be sure to give your opponents
opportunities to make more mistakes rather than making a mistake yourself.
NEXT...Check-raising
