Your field position also matters. Do you have a positional edge after the flop? So you may call with a lesser hand. The pot odds matter. Good odds indicate you should raise more than bad odds.
Remember your chip situation. Whether a greater chance will arise in the future. If you fold now, will you be compelled to play when you are weaker?
To display or not
So you used those poker strategies and won the poker game! At this stage, an online poker room will ask you whether you want to reveal or hide your cards. The usual guideline is to keep your cards close. Your hand provides hints and patterns that other players might use to understand your actions in following games. Less information is preferable.
However, showing your hand might be a strategic advantage if it encourages other players to misjudge your actions.
The more respect you earn from other players, the easier it will be to steal a pot. Suppose you get another good hand. Even if you don’t, this assumption can help. You may also dismiss it as a novice error — a newcomer showing off their good hand to everyone. If you aren’t a rookie, you have an edge because other players will mistakenly presume your ability level.
Assume you decide to expose your weak hand. Bluffing is revealed.
Showing your hand can make other players assume a bluff even when there isn’t one, which benefits you. This psychological game may also cause other participants to get tipped and uncontrollable.
A player may check-raise for two reasons. The first is to add value to the pot. For the second, opponents are encouraged to abandon potentially powerful hands. The check-raise is a great bluffing tool, but it may be too sophisticated for beginners to grasp. Newbies tend to check-raise to add value, which is OK.
A player must be in position to act first before raising a check for value. When a check-raise is provided, the opponent must be active enough to bet with a variety of hands.
Slow playing is a strategy intended to induce opponents to either fold to a raise or wager more aggressively than usual.
In essence, the player pretends to have a bad hand while they have a good one. Playing cautiously causes opponents to misjudge the player’s power and wager appropriately. This is a good tactic for experienced players, but it doesn’t take a pro to execute. There are hazards. If an opponent checks, slow play loses the pot-building value of a stake. It also diminishes hand protection, which may improve with time.
Donkey Bet!
This is a bet made by unskilled players (or ‘donkeys’). It is a short post-flop leading bet made by a player who is not the aggressor in the hand. However, it has strategic importance in that it causes opponents to respond, frequently by increasing or blocking subsequent bets.
Overbetting
An overbet is a significant bet, generally bigger than a pot. To get around a range cap in higher stakes games, overbetting. Overbets benefit players with powerful hands and also yield the most fold equity. Unaware opponents may be bewildered and stumble, giving the overbettor an edge.