Is always raising good?

Hi everyone, your forum is very addictive, I can't stop reading it, its like crack but you learn things instead of umm die, so I guess that's great!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm wrong, but I'd just like to understand why its not best to almost ALWAYS raise in a game. If you always raise it seems like u're always getting +EV because first of all it increases the value of your cards because you can fold people out cards of about the same quality. It also gains you free pots with bluffs. It even gives you information about a person's hand! I can't see any downside because if u're ALWAYS raising on the hands that you decide to play its practically like u're just playing regular poker at higher stakes with the added benefit of controlling the betting, gaining information, adding value, and winning free pots. Also, I can see if u're short stacked this probably wouldn't be a very good idea but it seems like large stacks should always do this and push short stacks into bad positions? Finally, I meant just raising preflop and on the flop, then you have the information to see if its worth the turn or river but often raising then too.

Hrmmmmmmmmmm, I just thought about it more and I guess its not as good at a big table because its like playing at higher stakes but the other guy gets 9 other hands and takes the best one to play against you with so u'll most often lose. But Heads up or shorthand poker it seems like this would be very viable.

You might be on to something here.

Why don't you do some research?

Next time you play raise every hand you get.

Get back to us.

The people that do this are called maniacs. The decent players at the table pick up on this very quickly, and then just wait for a great hand to trap the maniac and take their whole stack.

He didn't say raise on every hand, he said raise on every hand you decide to play. Of course, you don't want to do that either...but good solid tight/aggressive play DOES involve often raising pre-flop when in mid/late position and you decide to play a hand.

Often when I'm deep in a tourney and blinds are quite high relative to my stack size I almost never limp into a pot, I almost always raise the hands that I decide to play.

Yes, being loose/aggessive to an extreme is being a maniac, and that will lead to your downfall.

like all other poker advice, it depends on the table....

If the table is full of tight players, raise a little more often and run if someone calls or raises and you don't have a strong hand.

If the table is full of loose/maniac players, don't raise so much and smooth call when you have the hand to take 'em down.

At least, that's a very rough guesstimate of how I usually play, sometimes... ;)