Damning the River

These are just some notes on reasons for raising, just to help organize these strategies. This is not meant to be comprehensive- just a start.  Most of the time, I’ll be talking about the flop.

1.  Raising to protect your hand – getting others to fold and buying outs.  Ed Miller writes, “Protecting your hand is the art of placing your opponent in … lose-lose situations,” in which calling is not correct but folding, of course, means he has no chance of making his hand and winning.  Either way, you win; improper calls are how you make most of your money, and folding knocks him out and improves your odds.  This can be useful with strong but vulnerable hands or even marginal hands, as knocking out players can be crucial to improving your chances of winning.  If you are ahead, you should not let them draw out on you profitably. 

Even if you are behind or do not have a made hand, you still might want to protect your hand.  If you somehow make a better hand fold, that is incredibly beneficial.  Also, say you have a strong draw along with over cards, a raise can help “buy outs.”  Someone with a low pair who has you reverse dominated (e.g., he has pair of 4s with Ace kicker and you have AT, overcards to the board – an Ace gives you top pair but gives him two pair) may fold, opening up some doors to win.  It is helpful when this raise can also be “for value” (see below) even if they call, but, with strong draws, this need not always be the case.

Sometimes a raise will not protect your hand on the flop, and it is better to wait for the turn to raise.  For instance, if the board is very coordinated, and/or your edge in the hand is only slight, it is better to wait to throw a big bet or even two big bets into your other opponents.  You will do so if a “safe card,” one unlikely to make anyone’s hand, comes off on the turn.  Also, if the original bet is on your left, your extra bet will often not force anyone to fold and will only make calls profitable on the turn.  Again, pushing only moderate edge in this instance would be unwise.  Finally, raising in a very large pot will often not protect your hand, and you must wait for the double sized bet of the turn; when you just call on the turn, you are more likely to be bet into on 4th street, giving you a chance to raise.

2.  Raising for value or to push an edge.  A bet is “for value” if your bet as a percentage of the callers is less than your chance of winning the hand.  For instance, say you have a 1/3 chance to win, bet, and get 3 callers.  You contribute 25% of the money in that situation, but have a 33% chance to win.  You make money on the proposition in the long run. 

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