Poker Betting: Raise
When you are feeling confident (or just extremely lucky), you can choose to raise the bet on your hand in order to win a larger pot. While the potential pay out sounds great, it can be as equally as disastrous if it doesn’t work. Learning how to successfully raise in poker can be considered an art form, as the concept is easy to learn, but can take a lifetime to master. Knowing when to raise, re-raise or check and raise in poker can make a substantial difference in any player’s strategy.
In simple terms, raising is done instead of calling or checking. You match the round’s bet, and then essentially add to it, creating a new betting level that all players must now call or raise themselves. The general thought behind raising is this: you have the best hand, and you’re making the pot bigger.
However, it’s not always the best hand that raises. There are other instances that add a more unpredictable element to the move. Without this unpredictability, winning larger pots would not be possible, and it would be easy for other players to predict a raiser’s strategies. So it is important to mix things up in order to keep your play fresh and unpredictable.
To give an example here, raising can intimidate other players a great deal, especially if the person raising is doing well at the table. Essentially, the raiser is saying “ok, come play with the BIG dogs” (and they might even say exactly that after raising!) Raising with an inferior hand is also known as a bluff.
Raising (especially while also bluffing) can backfire, as someone raising may find their raise seen, and then raised again. Big Mike has a good hand, and bets $50. Big Tony has nothing good, but decides to bluff… he sees the $50 and raises another $50. But Big Mike isn’t intimidated (he’s Big Mike, after all) and sees Big Tony’s additional $50 and re-raises another $100. Big Mike is basically telling Big Tony one of two things: “I don’t believe you” or “I don’t think you can beat me”.
Now Big Tony has to decide whether or not Big Mike really has a good hand, or is bluffing even more than Big Tony is. As you can see, raising can make for fascinating gameplay (especially when guys like this are involved.)
