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Raising to Gain Information
Raising simply to gain information is a tricky play and shouldn't
be done often. Generally you should consider any information
gained as an extra benefit of a raise you are making for other
reasons.
There are occasions, though, when you cost yourself less by
raising to gain information early than you would if you had
not led your opponent into giving his hand away. These occasions
usually occur in heads-up situations and only in early betting
rounds. Furthermore, your opponent should be the type of player
whose response to your raise is likely to reflect the hand
he is holding. Otherwise your raise could very well give you
wrong information.
What can you learn by raising? Well, if your opponent calls,
he probably has a good hand. If he reraises, he probably has
a very good hand. (It's for this reason you cannot raise to
gain information when your opponent is the sort of player
who is capable of a semi-bluff reraise.) If your opponent
folds, that, of course, tells you he's weak, and you take
down the money. An added benefit to raising to gain information
is that sometimes your opponent may fold marginal hands that
he shouldn't have folded.
You invest in an early raise to gain information in order
to save yourself money later. If, for example, you call on
fourth street in seven stud, you may continue to call three
more bets only to discover in the showdown that you didn't
have a chance from the beginning. But a raise on fourth street
followed by a call or a reraise from your opponent allows
you to play your hand knowing you're up against considerable
strength. Depending upon your own strength, you can then decide
whether and how long it's worth continuing in the hand.
On the other hand, if you suspect one or both of the higher
pairs behind you will call your raise, not only should you
not raise, you should not even call the original bet since
you are beat in two places and may get beat in a third. This
somewhat rare situation is one of those times when your only
alternatives are to raise or fold. It is a time when a call
is patently incorrect.
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