When it’s your turn to act in a pot, oftentimes you’re presented with the opportunity to raise. You may be hesitant to do so for a variety of reasons. For instance, you have to take more money out of your stack and put it directly into the pot. You may be expected to put in another bet when the next street rolls around. You might just think that raising is a particularly poor idea in a given situation. Regardless of the reason, many players choose to play more passively when they’re called upon to act. However, we’re here to give you five reasons to raise or lead out and bet when the action comes around to you while you’re grinding out your hard-earned bonuses.

1. Get rid of the limpers. There’s nothing worse than your pocket aces getting cracked by 6-7 suited on PokerStars. You feel this pain in your gut that simply won’t go away. The reason your aces went down in flames to the inferior hand was because you allowed the player with 6-7 of diamonds to see the flop in the first place. The solution: raise or bet pre-flop. Ideally, you don’t want to have more than two opponents when you hold a big pocket pair. I, for one, don’t like having more than one opponent. Slow-playing isn’t the best strategy to play hands like A-K and kings with. More than likely, someone is going to out-flop you if you let too many people into the hand. Instead, become the aggressor and flush out your opponents who are limping into the pot. When it’s your turn to act, bet or raise.
2. Establish yourself as the leader in the hand. When it’s your turn to act, you want players to follow your lead. If you bet, you want them to see this as a sign of strength and fold. If you raise, you want everyone to look towards you when it’s your turn to act next. Becoming the full-blown leader in the hand is only possible by betting or raising (unless your name is Phil Ivey — one of the top pros at Full Tilt — or Doyle Brunson), who have earned respect at the tables). If your hand is stellar enough (or even frankly if it’s not), go ahead and raise.
3. Stealing blinds. Let’s say you’re in the cut-off and the action folds around to you. Why not raise? You can steal valuable blinds in a hand which, whether you’re playing in a tournament or a cash game, are extremely important. In reality, all you have to do is put in a raise to make this possible. Let’s say for a second that your opponent in one of the two blinds calls. After the flop, he or she is still first to act, meaning that you’re in position in the hand anyway. If they check, you can put in a continuation bet and take down the pot. If they bet, you can raise. Chances are, they’ll be folding if you do. Stealing the blinds is a necessity in tournaments and is extremely critical to cash game success as well.
4. Increase the size of the pot. When you hit a big hand, you want more money in the pot. You want players to have to bet more in order to take it down. If you flop the nuts, don’t get fancy and check. Instead, raise or bet in order to build up the size of the pot. If your hand holds up, you’ll take down an enormous pot and be well on your way to winning the tournament or increasing your stack in a cash game. Raising and betting are ways to pump money into the pot.
5. Change gears. Raising can be an especially important tool to change gears in a hand. This is most effective if you have developed a tight image at a table. If you’ve played a low percentage of hands and then raise out of the blue, chances are everyone else in the hand will take notice of this and fold. Raising must be in the arsenal of every poker player and its effectiveness is the greatest when it’s being used by players who have a tendency to play tight. Make sure you raise and bet in order to change gears.

There you have it: Five reasons why every single poker player should want to raise. With the game becoming more and more competitive, raising when it’s to your advantage is of the utmost importance. We’ll see you on the felts.