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You Are Here Raising In Texas Holdem Start learning how to play poker at the Poker Strategy hub page
Raising is one of the core elements in all poker games and describes the poker betting action of increasing the stakes at any point in a betting round. Raising in Texas Holdem is a poker strategy that you'll use often depending on a combination of your hand strength, table position, playing style, opponents playing styles, and number of opponents engaged in the game. Raising calls for fearless but disciplined play and avoiding impulsive betting, your strategy is to achieve a goal with your raise that either improves your winning chance, or increases the size of the pot, or both.
If you believe you are holding the best hand before the flop then raising in Texas Holdem games is often a good idea. This will force any players holding marginal or weak hands to fold, and your raise should be big enough to help them to come to that folding decision.
Of course, the size of your raise will be dependant on your own hand and its strength. Whenever you don't raise, your opponents get a free or cheap opportunity to see the flop and potentially improve their hand. The more players that are engaged in a hand, the more the possibility that at least one will either have an equal or better starting hand, and be able to improve on it. Raising potentially drives that opposition down, and gets you increased chances of success.
Raising is a poker strategy that's covered in depth at the PokerStrategy.com Poker school.
