Getting More Money in the Pot by Not Raising
Sometimes - even with no more cards to come - you can get more money or at
least as much money into a multi-way pot by calling instead of raising, and at
the same time avoid the risk of a re-raise from the original bettor. You go for
the overcall. That is, you call instead of raising in order to extract money
from one or more of the players still in the pot behind you.
Suppose, after all the cards are out, the bettor to your right appears to have
a hand you can beat. If you raise, that player will probably call, but if he
re-raises, you're in trouble. At the same time, there are two players to your
left whom you know you have beat. You also know they will call if you call, but
they will fold if you raise. In such a situation it becomes absolutely
incorrect to raise. You should only call. By calling you figure to win two
extra bets from the players behind you, but by raising you will win only one
extra bet at most when the original bettor calls your raise, which he may not
even do. What's more, your raise could cost you two bets if the original bettor
re-raises and you fold or three bets if he re-raises and you call with the
second best hand. It could also cost you two bets if the original bettor calls
your raise and turns out to have the best hand.
The situation at the end need not be as extreme as the one just described to
make a flat call correct.
If you raise with your A, Q high-heart flush, the third player will probably
fold, and the original bettor may throw away a small straight and not pay you
off either. So you may not gain a thing by raising; at most you'll win one
extra bet. And what if the original bettor re-raises, which he will do if he
has, for example, an A, K high flush, especially since he knows you cannot have
the king of hearts? (It's in the third player's hand.) By raising you lose two
or three bets instead of the one you would have lost by calling. Furthermore,
by just calling, you figure to win one bet from the player behind you when he
calls too. So you gain exactly as much as you could have gained by raising,
while you risk nothing.
In general, you should not usually raise but try for the overcall whenever all
the cards are out and your hand is clearly better than any hand that might
overcall behind you but not clearly better than the bettor's.
However, you must realize that to go for the overcall, you must be sure you
have the player or players to your left beat. If there is some chance one of
them has a better hand than yours but might not call your raise, it is critical
that you do raise when you have a decent of having the original bettor beaten.
You certainly don't want an overcall if it will cost you the pot.
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