Hi Eric,

I agree with you and do not think that initiative is a fundamental advantage the way you define it. And technically I think you are right that all that matters is the pot size, your hand, and the many levels of hand ranges that you put each other on.

I think in practice though it is a significant advantage, mainly because people tend to over-value aggressive actions.

If you're in a game where people auto-call your raises or bets, seizing the initiative is actually a disadvantage since you'll be putting more money in with the worst hand. You should be raising or betting for other reasons, like value, but not to seize any "initiative." And this is the case all the time in very good games.

However, against better players who aren't world class, seizing the initiative works because people generally don't pinpoint your hand range accurately, skewing it more toward higher valued hands than it should be. For example, many decent players will fold an unimproved ace on the flop or turn when, if they actually defined your hand range more correctly, would discover that folding is incorrect since you are capable of "seizing the initiative" with many worse hands. If this suddenly changed and call-downs became the defacto-standard among decent players, then seizing the initiative would become worthless.

Great post btw.