Raise or Fold
“If a hand isn’t good enough to raise with, then you should fold it.”
Now you have heard it said the correct answer to any poker question is: “It Depends!” Well then it is also true that all poker wisdom that come in wise sounding sentences like that one above, well those are true only some of the time. But in this case there is a very good moral to be learned from the idea of raising or folding.
You see new players often get caught playing inferior hands because they just call the opening bet or the big blind. Or they call and get raised and are now playing an marginal hand for two or even three bets. If you stick to the raise or fold rule, you will only play premium hands.
Now we all know, or we should know, that you will not be a long-term winning player if you stick exclusively to AA, KK, QQ and AK. You must learn to play other hands and play in position and learn to bluff etc. etc. etc. But the mantra of Raise or Fold! has a lot to say about playing before the flop.
You see if you are willing to raise, you send a strong message to your potential opponents and, of course, in no limit games you can chose just how big that message is going to be. When the blinds are 25/50, an opening raise to 500 says something very different than a raise to 100.
But the moral of Raise or Fold is not to be crazy with your raising, no the moral is that if you going to play a hand, be prepared to make a statement with your chips. Only you get to see your hole cards but everyone gets to see your chips hit the table. Raise! delivers your message louder than call. You are going to fold a lot anyway, so no one will ever know how good, bad or marginal the cards are that you fold but they will see and hear how strong you are when you say Raise!
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #81
