When Raising Makes No Sense

Sometimes a raise will just make absolutely no sense, but players will toss out a raise anyway. The first step is to determine which situations do not call for a raise. Once you are able to properly decide that you should either fold or call you will be one step closer to avoiding the mistake of raising when it makes no sense. Finding poor spots to raise is only the first step though. Identifying times where you shouldn’t raise will do you no good if you end up making the raise anyway. You have to commit to making the correct play, which will always be either a fold or a call. If you are contemplating raising there is a good chance that you either have a very strong hand or a very weak hands. Strong hands will make raises in an attempt to extract as much value as possible, but weak hands will make raises when they want to take down a pot with a bluff. Strong and weak hands will both have situations where raises are acceptable, that is for sure, but they will also have plenty of times where a call or fold makes much more sense.

Common Sense When Raising Your Hands

The biggest help when determining whether to raise or not is common sense. As simple as it might sound, there is no better way to make decisions in poker than through the implementation of a little common sense. Think about the last time you were holding a really strong hand. You were probably a bit excited about the pot you thought you were going to take down, and were only thinking about how you can make the most money.

If you had the absolute best possible hand (or something close to it) you would of course be looking to raise. What often happens, however, is that a player will have a hand that is strong, but not quite strong enough that they can’t be beaten. If your opponent has played their hand in a way that would make it possible for them to have you beaten you might want to consider a flat call, particularly if the pot is large.

One of the worst feelings in poker is making a raise on the river only to be re raised by a huge stack, call, and then lose the pot. You were given an opportunity to escape the hand with minimal losses, but you instead inflicted unnecessary damage on your bankroll. These hands are not going to happen very frequently, but when they do it should be relatively easy to make the call instead of a raise. If it doesn’t make complete sense there is usually a good reason. Think about what hands you beat next time you decide to make a big raise, if there aren’t too many hands that you beat it would make a lot more sense to go for the call. The worst that can happen is a small win. Don’t shoot for a major pot if your hand is only going to be good enough to take down a small one.

SUMMARY: When to Raise and When Not to Raise

There are plenty of situations where a raise is the only logical choice, but there are times where calling and folding are also viable options. Many players will make a raise in hopes of winning a big pot, but why build a big pot if there is a chance you are beaten?