Aggressive betting |Poker Strategy|

Aggressive betting to force a decision. If you are worried about a particular direction, you may make a bet or raise at the end to feign strength. This can be applied to two situations. First, you will declare in a certain direction, and you wish to drive out a player who may have you beaten.

If you take the action on the last round, thereby committing yourself to the first declaration, this opponent may play you for a strong hand and drop out. He cannot be sure of your intentions, since you may well be using strategy No. 1 (to build the pot) with a locked hand. Second, you wish to avoid a call against you by a player who you know will not be driven out by your bet or raise.

This may be a player contemplating a high-low call (e.g., he has a low and a straight but you may have a flush-if you bet out and call high he may settle for low), or a player uncertain whether to go against you or another player. If you bet, he may contest for the other half of the pot instead. It is useful to know the likely occurrence of events in a high-low consecutive declaration game. In most endings there will be three players remaining. If there is a bet on the last round, the bettor will usually not be opposed by either of the other players. About 60 per cent of the time it will go: low, high, high; or high, low, low.