Raising for Information

If you play poker seriously, you should always look to improve your game or add a few new things to your bag of tricks. Raising for information is one of those things I started to add to my game around late 2005. If you suspect that your opponent is making a continuation bet or that they might have a medium strength hand, then you can raise them to find out exactly where you stand. The information you get is based on whether or not you are called or reraised. I like to raise the minimum when making a raise for information. This way, I lose the least when I am beat, but it does not cost me much to win the pot when my opponent is weak and folds. If I get called after raising for information, I'll try to take control of the betting on the turn. If I get reraised, I will usually fold the hand. Of course, I'd rather just have my opponent fold their hand when faced with my minimum raise. I will also make this minimum raise when I hold a monster hand. This makes it harder for opponents to put me on a specific hand.

I said above that I will usually lay down a hand after getting reraised in this situation. However, nothing in poker is absolute. About 3 months ago in my regular $1/$2 no limit game, I was on the button with 3h-4h. After several limpers, I limped in as well. I was trying to see a cheap flop with a suited connector. If I flop big, then I know I'll probably win a big pot. If I miss, I fold and it does not cost me too much. This is why I like playing suited connectors when I am in position. However, in this hand, the big blind decided to raise it to $10 total (remember my post about raising the size of the pot?). After a few callers, I was priced into the pot and traded my two $1 chips for two $5 chips.

I hit the flop big. The flop came Ah-Qh-2d. I had a flush draw & gut shot straight draw. At this point, the pot had about $60 in it and a player from early position led out $20 into this pot. Action folded to me and this bet just appeared to be weak. I raised to $40. I wanted to find out where I was in this hand. Regardless of any made hand I was up against, I was about 43% to win the hand. I was surprised when my opponent reraised me to $100. Now I had a decision to make. Clearly, my opponent was strong so I was able to reason that my flush draw was live (I'm in real bad shape if my opponent is on a higher heart draw here). My opponent started talking about how I should lay down my flush draw. I was impressed with his read. He also said that one of the hearts is no good as that would fill him up. Was he really holding A-A? Would the 2h fill him up? I didn't think so. Because he was talking about holding A-A, I knew that he was not holding A-A. I also figured that because he was talking about making a full house, he was probably holding two pair--most likely A-Q.

The other thing about this play was that this player was not pot committed to the hand. If I were to move in for about $280 total, he could certainly get away from the hand. At this point, I had represented a hand like 2-2. While I knew I was a small underdog based on my read, I had fold equity in this hand. The chance that my opponent will fold will make up for the fact that I am a small underdog to win the pot. Aggressive poker is winning poker, so I reraised him all in. He quickly called and showed the A-Q as I suspected. A beautiful 5 peeled off on the turn and my opponent didn't even realize that I had made the straight until the dealer began to push me the pot. This was a semibluff that worked out well. However, I raised for information to find out where I was at in the hand. I also knew I had some fold equity when I made the all in bet on the semibluff. This is why A-K is so powerful preflop in no limit hold 'em. You have fold equity against hands that you are basically even money against. Who wants to call a reraise with a small pair when out of position? I certainly don't.