On the Flop
Raising to gain information on the flop is a very common tactic. Basically, you want to know the answer to one of two questions:
1. At the moment, does my opponent have a better hand than I dot
2. Is he on a drawl
Let's look at an example of this sort of situation:
You have A*8*. Your opponent raised before the flop, and the flop is A49*5*. He bets into you, telling you that he has at least a pair of aces. Whether your opponent actually does have the aces is something you don't yet know. If you just call here, and then call again on the turn and the river, you'll never know where you stand. He could have kings and be giving you a chance to fold. Here, you raise to gain information. If he folds, then it was your raise that told him that you have an ace or better, and he couldn't beat that. If he reraises you, then you've found out what you wanted to know. Consider the following hands (again, "s" means "suited):
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, AKs, AQs, AJs, AK, AQ, AJ, KQs, KJs, KlOs, KQ, KJ, KIO, QJ, QIO, JlOs
There are 160 different hands represented here! These are all hands that he could have raised with before the flop. When he bet into you on the flop, he could have had any one of these hands. If you know this player, maybe you know that if he flopped nothing in this spot he would have checked it. Go through the above list and eliminate any hand that would have been nothing on the flop.
Now, go through the list and eliminate any hand that would have been something on the flop, but you think most players would have checked. Since he didn't check on the flop, he doesn't have those hands.
The next step is to eliminate hands with which he would just have called your raise. He didn't just call, so he doesn't have those hands. Now look at the hands that are left.
Which of these hands seems to fit with what you know about how he played his hand so far?
In most situations, I think AA, 99, AKs and AK are excellent candidates. I think he positively has one of these hands, even though I'm not sure exactly which one it is. I don't have to know which hand he has, all I have to know is that he's got me beat and I don't have the right odds to continue with the hand.
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