Resisting the Raising Reflex in No-Limit Hold'em

No doubt, you've heard from many a person that the key to poker is never to call. Raise or fold. If you can't raise, throw it away.

It's perhaps useful advice for a casual player who hasn't yet seen how powerful aggression can be. But I think it's also very limiting advice, and it completely fails to explain how to play a class of very common situations.

Often, calling isn't so bad. This is especially true when you have position, and there's still plenty of money behind. The ability to wait and see is a very powerful positional weapon, and if you're overeager to get your money in the middle, you'll forfeit it.

For instance, let's say we have Q-J in the cutoff with $500 in a $2-$5 game. A couple of players limp in, and we raise to $25. Everyone folds to the big blind, who calls, as does one limper. The pot is threehanded for $82.

The flop comes Q-10-7 with two clubs. The big blind checks, and the limper bets $45. The action is on us. The flop bettor is an aggressive, but not crazy, player. He would bet hands like flush and straight draws, top pair, and perhaps even a weaker pair. But he would also bet hands like two pair or a set. What should we do?

I would strongly consider just calling. The decent top pair probably isn't strong enough to profitably play for stacks, and if we raise, the pot will be large enough that the next bet will surely commit all of our money.

If we call, the big blind raises, and the flop bettor pushes all in, we have an easy fold. If, as is more likely, the big blind folds and we're heads up on the turn, we're doing fine. If a good card comes on the turn, like an offsuit 4, and our opponent checks, we'll bet our hand for value. If a bad card comes, like the A, and our opponent makes a big bet, we'll fold. If a good card comes and our opponent bets anyway, we'll have to make a decision. Calling keeps us in the hand and enables us to gather more information before we have to make a final decision for our stack. That's the power of position.

Whenever you have position and there's lots of money behind, you're in a flexible situation. Sometimes it's good to keep them guessing.

In limit hold'em, protecting your hand is a central strategy. If you have top pair on the flop and someone bets into you, the large majority of the time you should raise. One goal is to build a pot with the best hand. But another important goal is to protect your hand - or really, to protect the pot. Since the pot is generally large (maybe eight or 10 bets) compared to the size of a raise (one bet), it's often worth it to throw in an extra raise in an unclear situation to try to fold your opponents and consolidate your winning chances. If you get reraised, it's still only one more bet that, compared to the pot size, isn't too big a penalty.

Good limit hold'em players develop a flop raising reflex. They learn to raise top pair, draws, middle pair, and sometimes overcards or even worse. Since the pot is so big compared to the raise, it's the right thing to do.

In no-limit, though, you need to unlearn that reflex and rethink some of the aggression. Sometimes the pot is still large compared to the bets (usually when the stacks are short or when a lot of money went in preflop). In that case, it's often still best to push and pray. But when the pot is small (especially if it was just limped around preflop) and the stacks are deep, the risk-to-reward balance often no longer supports raw aggression. If you flop top pair and charge in headlong with raises and reraises, you could end up losing a bundle in a pot that was just a few chips when you got started; not good.

When the pot is small, protecting your hand -- really, the pot -- doesn't have much value, since there isn't much there to protect. If you miss a raise and then someone draws out on you, it's no big deal -- if you fold before losing a big chunk of your stack. In other words, you have two main priorities when you flop top pair in a small pot: get value from worse hands and avoid losing a big pot. Losing a small pot is no big deal. Protecting your hand is only a modest consideration. You want to get value from worse hands without losing a big chunk of your stack.

Often, the best way to achieve both goals is to play it slow on the flop by calling. With position, you always will have the final option to bet for value. So, you will have the opportunity later to build the medium-sized pot worthy of your top pair. And by just calling, you avoid bloating the betting and keep the pot size comfortable for the strength of your hand.

Calling can be best even if several players are yet to act. Again, protecting your hand doesn't have nearly the urgency that it does in limit. If someone draws out, it's no big deal as long as the pot is still small. You want to avoid losing the big pots, and, frankly, you're a lot more likely to lose a big pot if you build one by raising.

Naturally, you should raise top pair sometimes, also. If you're against a loose-aggressive player, or a loose and predictable player, you don't have to fear losing a big pot as much, because the aggressive player will build a big pot with worse hands, and the loose and predictable player won't make a big move without a monster. But raising is far from imperative, and often it's best to simply call and see what happens. If everyone else folds and your opponent checks the turn, you can get your value-bets in on the turn and river. On the other hand, if a raising war breaks out, you can quietly fold, knowing that your position, combined with your wait-and-see attitude, has saved you a tidy sum.

Ed is a featured coach at StoxPoker.com. Also check out his online poker advice column, NotedPokerAuthority.com. He has authored four books on poker, most recently Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume 1.