Why Raise?
There are many everest poker players on many different online poker sites who watch television and hear a sound bite that suggests, “You have to raise Ace-King preflop.” Or a player will read a blog post stating that the only way to play is tight aggressive poker. Both of the statements are flawed in that there is no absolute way to play poker. Every hand, every situation is different and unique. These players go on to think that they should raise, but never come to understand why. As a result, they begin raising just for the sake of raising. There are far more reasons to raise than just doing so because you can or you should when you have a decent hand. Here are some of the many reasons to raise the pot with a big hand in a cash game
Isolation
Raising the pot is going to weed out many of the marginal hands that may play for the minimum. For someone to call you when you raise with your big hands, they are going to need something solid as well, or they are going to pay you off. The reason you want to be heads up before the flop is that your monster, like Pocket Jacks will hold against one pocket pair most of the time. The more hands you face going to the flop, the better chance someone will flop two pair or a flush draw. You want your odds of winning the pot to be as high as possible.
Build a Big Pot
The rule of thumb is “Small pot, small hand; Big Pot, big hand.” When you have a big hand in pkr poker, you want to gain commitment to the pot as early as possible for both you and the opposing players. The benefit of building a big pot is that you are committing to the pot, staking claim to it – telling the world you cannot be bluffed. Big hands are meant to play around big pots.
Fold Equity:
When players see that you are making raises with big hands, you are going to get respect. When you are putting in a raise, you are signaling that you have a big hand. Whether or not you improve your hand on the flop, you have already let them know you are strong and another bet will often get them to lay it down.
Understanding when to raise is just as important as comprehending why we raise.