I wrote earlier about aggressive players. I would like to expand on that thought. While aggression is an important part of poker, it's judicious use must be considered. In Hold'em it is a key factor in winning, including stealing from late position, taking the lead in pots, bluffing, and raising for value. Aggressive players are usually winners while passive ones are generally not. Which brings us to the reasons for raising.
1. To reduce the number of players competing for the pot. By raising we eliminate random but weak hands that can "flop lucky". All cards play better heads up rather than in multi-way situations.
2. To gain positional advantage. Knocking out players who would act behind you is never a bad thing.
3. To "take the lead". The tendency is to check to the raiser so this can work well to either bluff the callers, gain value when you hit big, cover later bluffs, or check behind on big draws.
4. I almost hesitate to even mention this one, but it is the main reason many weak player do it. To build a bigger pot. I will elaborate on this one in reference to limit games and more specifically Omaha hi low. When you raise in a limit game you do not elicit many folds. Players with premium hands will play back at you while hands that would have folded to one bet will certainly fold to two. Earlier limpers will always call, building a pot size that is "protected". If there is $50 in the pot, no one is folding for a $4. flop bet. The pot odds have given everyone good odds to call with any draw and gives strong made hands future equity and even reason to re-raise. The problem continues to the turn, with the only folders on river misses. The best oh8 starting hand is said to be AA23 double suited, however a low hand only happens 60% of the time, we all know about flush draws, and a pair of aces is only a single pair. So, your super premium hand will sometimes win, but often fail.
It gets worse for the straddler, playing random cards out of position in a swollen pot. Since super aggressive raisers often straddle, this compounds their problems. I wrote earlier about my success against this type of player who was seated on my immediate left, so Sunday a similar player was seated in the 7 seat while I was in the 2. She bought in for 4 or 5 hundred which is ridiculous for starters, even commenting about how she planned to use them. True to her word, she raised the first hand and most of them afterwards. The saving grace was that she was losing and frequently leaving the table for 20 to 30 minutes. After a couple of hours I commented about her raises quietly to the player next to me (who was killing the game plus one high hand). Her bat ears picked it up and she began mouthing off to me about her many premium hands. I ignored her. Not long afterwards she racked up $250 and left. I ultimately cashed up $42.
One more concept about raising. Pot control. When you raise big, you put pressure on your hand for subsequent streets. If you raise 50/100 blind to 250 and get one caller from the sb, there is now 600 in the pot, making your continuation bet of 1/2 pot size only 300. If you had raised to 450 instead, your continuation (and I hope you are nearly always doing this) would now have to be 500 to bet a 1/2 pot. The pot has more quickly grown into a monster that you may not be able to get away from with your pair and 2 over-cards showing.
One last raising comment. In my oh8 game I seldom raise for deception purposes. By raising only with super premium hands I would announce my hand to the table. By calling, more players enter, my hand is well disguised, leading the k/K and A/3 hands believing they are best. This nets more money on the river, particularly from 2nd or 3rd nut low hands.
1. To reduce the number of players competing for the pot. By raising we eliminate random but weak hands that can "flop lucky". All cards play better heads up rather than in multi-way situations.
2. To gain positional advantage. Knocking out players who would act behind you is never a bad thing.
3. To "take the lead". The tendency is to check to the raiser so this can work well to either bluff the callers, gain value when you hit big, cover later bluffs, or check behind on big draws.
4. I almost hesitate to even mention this one, but it is the main reason many weak player do it. To build a bigger pot. I will elaborate on this one in reference to limit games and more specifically Omaha hi low. When you raise in a limit game you do not elicit many folds. Players with premium hands will play back at you while hands that would have folded to one bet will certainly fold to two. Earlier limpers will always call, building a pot size that is "protected". If there is $50 in the pot, no one is folding for a $4. flop bet. The pot odds have given everyone good odds to call with any draw and gives strong made hands future equity and even reason to re-raise. The problem continues to the turn, with the only folders on river misses. The best oh8 starting hand is said to be AA23 double suited, however a low hand only happens 60% of the time, we all know about flush draws, and a pair of aces is only a single pair. So, your super premium hand will sometimes win, but often fail.
It gets worse for the straddler, playing random cards out of position in a swollen pot. Since super aggressive raisers often straddle, this compounds their problems. I wrote earlier about my success against this type of player who was seated on my immediate left, so Sunday a similar player was seated in the 7 seat while I was in the 2. She bought in for 4 or 5 hundred which is ridiculous for starters, even commenting about how she planned to use them. True to her word, she raised the first hand and most of them afterwards. The saving grace was that she was losing and frequently leaving the table for 20 to 30 minutes. After a couple of hours I commented about her raises quietly to the player next to me (who was killing the game plus one high hand). Her bat ears picked it up and she began mouthing off to me about her many premium hands. I ignored her. Not long afterwards she racked up $250 and left. I ultimately cashed up $42.
One more concept about raising. Pot control. When you raise big, you put pressure on your hand for subsequent streets. If you raise 50/100 blind to 250 and get one caller from the sb, there is now 600 in the pot, making your continuation bet of 1/2 pot size only 300. If you had raised to 450 instead, your continuation (and I hope you are nearly always doing this) would now have to be 500 to bet a 1/2 pot. The pot has more quickly grown into a monster that you may not be able to get away from with your pair and 2 over-cards showing.
One last raising comment. In my oh8 game I seldom raise for deception purposes. By raising only with super premium hands I would announce my hand to the table. By calling, more players enter, my hand is well disguised, leading the k/K and A/3 hands believing they are best. This nets more money on the river, particularly from 2nd or 3rd nut low hands.
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