[ML4L]

Hey Bobbo,

Thanks for the response. At least one person cares... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Everything that you said is correct (at least, I think everything; that was a long post...). I think that it is a perfect addendum to my article.

Unfortunately, there are word count limitations on the magazine articles, so I wasn't able to go into depth about the things that you talked about in your post. Although, hopefully everyone saw that I did briefly address every point that you mentioned.

The real purpose of writing the article was to address the countless posts on this forum that advocate doing something to "find out where you're at" when it is not the optimal play. Many players use small raises, ill-timed blocking bets, and other feeble attempts at manipulation as crutches so that they never have to learn how to read hands or have to make difficult decisions. Most of these players also loathe the thought of ever folding the best hand, so they take actions that minimize that probability, rather than actions that maximize EV. So, I presented a reasonable scenario where the play of "raising for information" would actually cost a player money.

But, as you illustrated, there are scenarios where a "raise for information" is a good play. In fact, when I was discussing my draft with Matt Flynn, his first response was, "I raise for information all the time." But, I think that there are a number of factors that generally need to be present to make this sort of raise correct, including:

- deep stacks
- a non-straightforward (but not overly tough) opponent
- position
- other benefits to the raise aside from information
- a willingness to selectively apply more pressure when called

Another important consideration that you touched on is that, any time that this sort of raise is profitable with a marginal made hand, it would likely be at least as profitable (sometimes more profitable) with a weak draw or nothing. There is also the consideration that, with a weak draw or nothing, you have no showdown value to factor in, so you don't have to worry about a situation where raising is +EV, but not as +EV as calling down, as might be the case with a marginal made hand.

Thanks for the response.

Mike