[LearnedfromTV]

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I don't disagree with your main point. However, sometimes just calling is not the best play. If your hand is worth calling is it often worth reraising. That way you gain initiative and give your opponent difficult decisions, where he often may fold a good hand or call with a worse hand.

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The easiest example of what i am talking about is a call in a deep stacked situation where a raise or fold is more comfortable, but that doesn't mean I'm saying you should call more often indiscriminately, or that this is the only example. In another deep stacked situation, a dangerous seeming semi-bluff raise (not allin, not close to pot committing, i.e. really deep stacks) may be the play the maximizes your information edge for future streets, and the safer but less optimal play is a call. (a low-level version of this is teaching a loose passive in limit the 'free card play').

Regarding 'initiative', elindauer in the high stakes limit forum created an excellent recent thread arguing that 'initiative' is not a pure advantage independent of the hand range assessments that accompany it. Making the last raise or bet on an earlier street typically gives you an advantage on the next street because your hand range is weighted stronger by your opponents, not because there is a fundamental advantage to having the initiative. It sounds like a semantic difference, but when you think it through you realize it isn't. The thing is, sometimes, you would prefer you opponent weight your hand range weaker. Other times, your opponents will interpret a flat call as stronger than a raise, and this may or may not be what you want them to think. Generally, what matters is how effectively your action will manipulate your opponents view of your hand range such that you can get the most value from your actual hand. "initiative" is shorthand for the fact that often aggressive action maximizes your information because it makes your opponent view your hand as strong and forces him to make a difficult and readable decision. This is not universally true, however.