Raising When Drawing

Raising when drawing is the classic "semibluff". I think there are times it should be done, and times when it shouldn't - like all good poker decisions it depends on the situation.

Presuming you are last to act (I generally hate check/raising with standard draws - you might lead out and bet but I will talk about that later - check/raising with draws puts more money in an already growing pot that you are out of position with and might very not well hit on the turn - ugly I think). Then raising with a draw is definitely something that should be considered.

First of all, if you bet your good hands hard it is important to not always "have it" in the poker sense when you do bet/raise. This is so good players who notice your tendencies won't always make the correct decisions against you. If you throw in an occasional play like this they will sometimes call with the worst of it or fold the best hand - if you dont then you will be transparant to them (not so important in low stakes internet poker but applicable nonetheless.) A good draw when you have position is prime example of this.

If you have flopped a nut flush draw (for example), someone has bet and you are last to act you have a choice to make, you are probably going to play at least until the turn (unless its something ridiculous being bet in relation to the pot) so the question is do I call or raise? Well the first thing you should look at is the number of players in the pot. If several players are in and have already flat called then you are probably best to just call. This is for several reasons. Firstly, you are getting good odds on your draw with the multiway action and would like to keep everyone in if you do hit (for the chance of the payday - maybe one of them has a lower fdraw? maybe one of them cant fold top pair if you hit? who knows but you would like them in to try anyway!). Yes your hand is not really disguised to the good players but you are getting good current pot odds anyway and you always have SOME implied odds from the donks so that is not too bad. Raising in a spot like this is likely to cause some of the players to fold and maybe 1 or poss 2 to call. This is a terrible outcome to your raise. You have taken away your good odds from everyone calling and failed to get everyone to fold, yes you might get a free card on the turn (but they might bet you anyway of course) but the whole purpose of a semibluff (well one of the major ones) is to cause your opponents to fold the best hand - and against a multiple field this is just not likely to happen (especially on the net!). In my opinion in a spot like that you get bigger EV by just calling along multiway than raising. However.....

When you are heads up or possibly three way when the action comes to you it is a different ball game. This time your current pot odds will not be quite so good, and against 1 or 2 players you have a very good chance of causing him to (or perhaps both of them 3way) fold if you put in a decent pot sized raise with just the draw. Again like someone mentioned before me, if you DO get called then your hand is that bit more disguised than had you just flat called (a flush draw is the most obvious of all draws) and against 1 or 2 opponents they might very very well fold anyway (especially if you have a good tight image at the table).

Out of position multiway just forget it on the flop, you might as well check/call because if you bet you will get 1/2 calling and this is bad for your pot odds/equity - you will be out of position if you miss (no free card, or do you hump more money in a pot you have nothing at - ho hum bad place to be). Out of position heads up is a different ball game though. You stand a good chance of causing your opponent to fold if you bet the draw on the flop (especially if you raised preflop) and your hand is very disguised if he calls and you hit. Nothing changes the fact tho that it is an ugly place to be if he calls and you miss. You have to be able to judge these situations in a poker game for your yourself, but these are the sort of things that I think should be considered when you are weighing up a semibluff.



Jez