[Hamlet]

Do you really think raising is all that bad? Granted, no one is going to fold, and your hand doesn't play very well in a multi-way pot. But as long as it's live and I'm playing against very loose opponents who are likely to come in with very trashy hands, I like to raise. Granted, I mainly raise so I can justify my bad calls later because I've made the pot too big to fold [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I think there are a couple of key questions:

1. Do these people ever limp with big pairs?
2. Do these people have even a semblance of hand selection?

If the answer to these questions are both no, I can't keep myself from raising.

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A third-street scenario: low card brings it in for $1, three players call and two fold. You have (JJ)4. The guy behind you has a Ten in the door, and there is only the bring-in after him. The limpers have two Queens and a King. Kammen has you raise here, saying that you want to get the guys behind you out. I consider myself to be a pretty aggressive player, especially when playing $2/4 while quaffing bloody maries. I think that calling in this spot is far superior to raising. Your raise isn’t going to get out too many people who weren’t folding anyway. There just isn’t that big of a difference between calling $1 and $2. Maybe the bring-in will fold for the extra $1, but if his hand is that poor, he’ll probably fold to a bet on fourth street. You’re not going to get the big cards to fold for another dollar, and any one of them could hit on fourth street. I think you’re much better off limping and then hoping to get a raise in if things fall good on fourth street.


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