I personally rarely raise in a
poker game, Why? the answer is simple, I want to limp in and make my opponent believe I am unsure about my hand strength, Which when you think about it is 90% of the time, you can never be sure on your hand strength, even if you were dealt Pocket Aces, every hand can be beaten, so I limp just to see a flop, but if facing a raise I may call depending on the size of the raise.
Leading them into a belief that your hand is weak can lead them into a trap, so Checking after a flop gives them the opportunity to bet into you and it is up to you to decide whether the hand is good enough to carry on or just fold if you miss it, I might even check after the Turn card trying to get another bet out of them, after all if you give them enough rope they might just hang themselves.
Then comes the River, now there is a possibility that I missed on every stage of the hand, and I was caught Fishing for a Straight or Flush, but regardless I have come this far I might believe my opponent was also fishing and missed his hand completely, Now I come out betting putting the pressure on my opponent, and the question he has to answer is am I
bluffing or did I have the nuts from the flop?
Either way I can win the pot because if he folds I win, and if I am holding the "Nuts" I win. So raising pre-flop, is in my book unwise, unless you want to reduce the number of players in the hand,
In one Tournament I took part in I was dealt A,A on the very first hand, and wanting to just take down the blinds I put in a 3X raise hoping to end it there, as we were all unable to get a read on our opponents as the game was only just starting, I was UTG and the player UTG+1 raised me by betting 6X the blinds, now I thought it was a little cheeky after all we didn't know each other or how we played and when he got 3 callers, I thought that's it! I have only one option left, the Blinds folded and the action came back to me so I shoved all-in.
Players at the table were in a state of dis-belief as this was the first hand? I even went into the story that I had travelled over 100 miles to play in that Tournament and I really didn't care if I was the first player out. I really didn't want to see the flop, The player UTG+1 asked me if I would show my cards? and I said "For sure, I will show, Call and I will show, or Fold and you can turn them yourself" I really didn't give a damn!
After a few minutes of thinking about his hand he eventually folded and the next player asked me again if I would show? I just said "I am a man of my word and I will show either way", He thought for a couple of minutes and decided to call. The other players immediately folded and we went to the races.
When both hands were turned over, he had Pocket Queens against my A/A and the player UTG+1 said well I folded A/Q so you only have one out, to which I said that's great news because he has only 1 out as well and he has to hit, I Don't!
Neither of us improved so my Aces held up, and the player UTG+1 remarked Damn it! I would have made a Royal Flush on the very first hand, when we checked he had folded the A/Q suited and would have made the Royal Flush had he called.
So if I had decide just to call the 6X bet I could have been beaten holding A/A on the very first hand. Going all-in stopped him from doing this and I went on to take 2nd place after around 8 hours of Tournament Play. So it does happen in Live games as well as On-line it's not that unusual.
