A. Call This is the “smooth call” you hear about and it gives away the least amount of information about what you’re holding. Of course, you have very little information about the bettor’s hand at this point, so this is probably the weakest play you can make unless you hold a really strong hand like a “made” Straight, Flush or Full House. The problems this play produces are several, not the least of which is that it’ll probably slow down – or kill completely – the betting on the hand. In my (admittedly limited) experience, a lot of players will put you on a hand of Ace-something if you were the opening raiser and, if an Ace doesn’t fall on the flop, they’ll bet into you, whether or not they made a hand. If you call at this point, they’ll usually check on the turn, unless they put you on a draw. Of course, a draw may be the farthest thing from your mind, but if the board supports the notion, that’ll likely be the first hand your opponent puts you on. If s/he thinks you’re on a draw and has a hand like top-pair, top-kicker, then you can pretty much figure on looking at a big bet if the turn card doesn’t help a perceived Straight or Flush draw. If your opponent cannot, because of the flop’s “texture”, put you on a draw and bets on the turn, s/he either has a real hand or is “firing the next barrel” of a bluff. Your response will largely be determined by what you hold, the pot odds offered and your perception of what the bettor holds, plus the response from other players still in the pot. Besides folding and calling, you can choose to:
B. Raise This play really gives no information about your hand, but it can gain a lot of information about your opponent’s hand. Because you raised pre-flop, people perceive you as holding a strong hand of some type. But as I mentioned earlier, if an Ace didn’t flop most of those who will bet into you are figuring you “missed”, while they may or may not have made a hand. Your raise goes a long way toward confirming your hand was, and is, strong. This is a point where the size of your raise also “talks.” A minimum raise says one thing and an all-in raise says something else. To be sure, either might get called, so you can’t always go all-in and expect to win the hand, but nether can you expect to chase away many players with just a minimum-sized raise. You really want your raise to accomplish one of two things: force your opponent to fold or force your opponent to make a bad decision. As an example of the latter, let’s say your opponent is on a Straight draw and has bet into you as a semi-bluff. If you just call, you might be “pricing” the pot, thus making a draw profitable. But if you raise, you’ll alter the odds and, if your raise is big enough, your opponent may fold just because the favorable pot odds are no longer available. Oh, I know many of the “newbies” out there don’t give a damn about pot odds, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them, too.
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