06-13-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Odds And Raising
Some of the decisions made, especially in limit are based on pot odds, implied odds and hand odds (the odds of hitting your cards). All of the information I've read, so far, tells me that if you have the pot odds or the implied odds, you should call, even if you know you are behind, because you are getting a good return on your investment if you hit. If you do not have the odds to call, against a drawing hand, you should fold. But what about when you have excellent pot odds (say 3 or 4 times your drawing odds), can you use this to justify a raise? I see this kind of situation regularly at micro limits where the pot is giving you 14 to 1 on a flush or open ended draw, post-flop.
Thanks in advance,
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Answer: Absolutely! A big portion of what differentiates a great player for a good player is the ability to win extra money playing the same hands. The expert will be able to not only lose less with the losing hands, but win more win the winning hands. Often times in holdem there are situations where, like you said, the draw you have relative to the odds and return is so generous you'll make more if you pump the pot with raises.Let me give you two examples that I can think of off the top of my head.
First, I was playing last week in a limit holdem kill game (check this site if you don't know what a kill game is). It was my kill and I had KTs. An aggressive Asian player raised from middle position, a fairly tight player called, and two other weak players called behind. I called too. The flop came back Ten high with two diamonds, giving me the top pair and the second nut flush draw. At this point, even if the guy had an overpair, I'm even money with him to win by the river, and I played the hand accordingly.
Being as I was in early position, I checked. The initial raiser bet, the tighter player now raised. To my surprise, both weak players also cold called. I could have also called here too, but instead I decided to make it three bets. I did this because my hand is so strong that I wanted more money in the pot. Also, by raising now and making everyone put in 3 bets, I commit them the rest of the hand (people always get tied into monster pots). Next, I knew there was a small chance I could get the preflop raiser to muck his over pair, giving me even more chance to win.
Everyone called, I hit my flush on the turn, got more callers, then raised the river when one of the weak players bet his smaller flush. The weak player bet into me on the turn when the diamonds completed, but I just smooth called as to not cut off any action behind me. As a good player, each decision you make is based partly on how to extract the maximum money from your opponents. I'll come back to this in a second after my next example. I had JTs under-the-gun in a relatively weak game, so I limped in. Everyone else limped in behind me, literally, only to have a person on the button raise.
Now again, instead of just calling, I decided to reraise and build a big pot, because my hand does very well against a large number of opponents. To make a long story short, it got capped with everyone in, I hit my flush draw and flush and won another monster pot. See, you don't have to have to the nuts to raise. There are many reasons to raise, one of which is to just build the pot incase things do go your way. As you become more experienced, you'll be able to pick out spots where you can put in extra bets without incurring anymore risk; in no way should this sound as though you're just putting in bets and trying to get lucky; this is math. Back to extracting the maximum on your good hands...
Most of the time we like to think of a raise, with respect to making more money, just increasing the betting. 'I'm raising here because my hand is good and I want more." That isn't the whole story though. A raise at the correct time can create deception. Making your opponent think you have one thing, because you raised, instead of something else, which can often lead to them playing their hand incorrectly and paying you off way more than they should have. Let me give you a quick example of that.
Let's say I've played straight-forwardly all day against tough opponents. They expect me to play my hands a certain way, like raising all my very strong hands on the turn only. When the flop comes back JJT and I have AJ or KJ, I'll raise them right on the flop and bet it down. What this does is confuse them, because they assume I wouldn't want to raise then if I really did have the Jack, just on the off chance they'll fold.
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