I’ve spent most of my life playing limit games and have only recently joined the NL festivities. When I delved into the game, I was astonished how many concepts and plays performed dramatically different.

One such is raising. In limit, if you raise, you may get rerasied, and at worst you’ll lose another bet, more accurately the negative expectation portion of that bet. In NL you can get rerasied and be forced to either call a large wager in relation to the pot or fold. If you call a larger wager, you’re odds are greatly reduced, and if you fold, you’ve cost yourself your hand equity and any future implied odds.

For this reason, you assume much greater risk raising in NL. That is even more true is your opponent(s) are aggressive and capable of reraise shove bluffs and semi-bluffs. For that reason you should be much more cautious with your NL raises.

I’m not saying you should never raise. Raising should be in your playbook. But keep in mind the risks and assess them accurately. Correctly done, you’ll find you won’t be getting blown off your equity as often. Yes, there are times you’ll lose some value, but if you avoid getting shut out of your equity in some scenarios, it will be a winner overall

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