Reasons to Raise

[Louie Landale]

Its toward the end of the hand, the pot is reasonably large, and you are faced with a bet. Let come up with lots of reasons to RAISE I'll start:

[] I'm a big favorite against the bettor and want to build a big pot I expect to win.

[] I've got a big draw and there are already lots of callers.

[] There is plenty enough doubt vis-a-vis the pot size to pay the player off (e.g. "getting right odds to call"), but I want to insure the marginal hand behind me does NOT call.

[] I'm getting the right odds to call and there are a lot of hands better than mine the better will NOT call the raise with (i.e. I bluff). Since I'm going to call anyway, the "bluff-raise" only costs me one more bet, not two.

[] I have a weak pair and a draw and I can knock out the best hand behind me in case the bettor IS betting HIS draw.

[] The pot is huge, my hand has some showdown equity, and I really don't know where I'm at.

[] I'm getting the right odds to call and I may knock players out increasing the chances that hitting my overcards may win.

[] The bettor routinely folds in the face of a raise when he is "obviously" beat.

[] The potential callers routinely fold when faced with a double bet.

[] They are afraid of me (and rightfully so).

[] They'll remember THIS weak raise and are sure to pay off all my future raises.

[] They are sure to react naturally to my raise.

[] I'm going to pay it off anyway and gain a little by raising now (figuring to check later).

- Louie

[Phat Mack]

[] I can see that it's going to be capped before the flop anyway, so I might as well raise to disguise my drawing hand.

[] I see that that my constant BTF raising is really annoying the grinders.

[cero_z]

[]To knock out the other drawing hands when I'm clearly second-best, but plan to continue playing, so I only have to beat one hand. This is close to but not the same as Louie's 3rd reason.

[Louie Landale]

I'd thought I'd get more takers. Anyway, I am suggesting that when the pot is big you should be LOOKING for reasons to continue to invest money, even to bet or raise as a clear underdog. Such investments don't have to work often to show a big profit.

Failing to invest in big pots is a HUGE mistake otherwise aspiring young players make: they start out playing tight (correctly) but fail to adjust adequately for the size of then pot (incorrectly).

- Louie

[JAA]

Man Oh Man Louie talk about hitting the nail on the head. A couple of my friends are pretty new to the game, and I've been slowly showing them the ropes. One thing they both do that I constantly chastise them for is erring on the side of looseness in small pots and erring on the side of tightness in large pots. I keep telling them that this should be obviously counterintuitive, but they don't grasp it. When there aren't many people in and the pot is small, they're more inclined to chase because they don't have to beat as many hands. In large pots, they often fold when they should be drawing, using the logic that there are so many people in someone is bound to have a monster.

I'm trying to break them of this flawed logic, and the first thing I will be doing after posting this is printing out 2 copies of this thread.

- JAA