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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 reraise
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 reraises, 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
reraises and you fold, or three bets if he reraises 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 so 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 reraises, 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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