Quote Originally Posted by Fnord
True, but saying you need the near nuts or folding equity to raise is just plain silly.
I'm not saying this. But I am saying that you should have folding equity or at least be pretty darn likely to have the best hand (taking into consideration what your opponent bets/calls with) to raise.

There's such a thing as raising to fold your opponent out, and then there's raising to get more money in the pot when you think you have the best of it. If you are reasonably confident that you have the best of it, and your opponent is a calling station who won't catch a clue that he's beat if you raise, then raise.

My point was that there are often profitable reasons to call somebody down vs. raising. I didn't say that it should be the standard play.

Keep in mind also that a raise in NL and a raise in limit are not the same thing, even if they are the same chip/$ amount. One has a lot more implied cost attached to calling it than the other.

I'm thinking back to Mike Caro's audio lesson on checking and calling being an underrated option. I used to think he was somewhat out to lunch on that topic (exception: I thought it was fine for use on the river). Now I find myself checking and calling from the front more and more often with medium strength hands.

Don't raise if only a better hand will call and every better hand will call. Common sense, yes. But I often see it not applied.