If you think you have the best hand and you want to make sure that you either win the pot and get paid right now, or, at least, pressure your opponents to pay into the pot in a situation where you believe you have the edge, you make a raise. Strangely, when you have the best hand, and you know for certain that it will be the best hand whatever cards appear on the board, then you have a “lock” on the hand, or, in poker parlance, you hold the “nuts”. This allows you to play deceptively because you know that you definitely hold the winning hand. If you told everyone that you had the best hand, they would all fold and you would probably win very little money. Now, you do not want to drive players out of the pot. You want them to stay in and, hopefully, hit a hand of their own. If you can feign weakness or indifference then, if they do hit a hand, they will be betting into you, calling your bets and, generally, paying you more money later than you would get steaming in right away. For example:

if you held       Q(D),J(D)
and the flop came K(D),10(D),9(D)

you have a Straight Flush and it cannot be beaten by anyone else. Do not put in a raise now. Just check or call any bet that is made. You hope that someone might hold A(D) and then, if they make a Flush, they will have what they think is the best possible Flush. You, however, have them beaten with your Straight Flush - which is an unbelievably strong hand.

If and when your opponent bets, call the bet and look eager to see the turn or river card. Unlike bridge - and many other games - you can “coffee-house” (mislead your opponents with idle gossip), needle them with taunts, even lie about what you are holding. On the final round of betting, you can put in a small raise, or re-raise and hope to get called or raised again. Whatever happens, you are trying to extricate the maximum number of your opponents’ chips on this hand, because you know you are winning.

It is possible that, on such a hand, even if you look bored and don’t bet until the final round, no one calls a bet. Unless an opponent has a pretty good hand himself, you are unlikely to see much action. The three diamonds on the flop will scare everyone away.

Your one hope is that one or more of your opponents suddenly gets what he thinks is a great hand. Let’s see how this might work. To have any chance of this happening, you must let your opponents see all the community cards for free. Say, the turn and river appear like this:

you hold               Q(D),J(D)
the commumty cards are 10(C),4(D)  K(D),10(D),9(D)
and one opponent holds K(H),10(S)
and another            A(D),Q(C)

Now, the table is in for fireworks. One opponent has made an ace-high Flush which looks pretty good; another has made a Full House, which beats a Flush, and he thinks he has you buttoned up. One opponent makes a bet, another raises him, perhaps you re-raise. Where will it end? Well, as a Full House beats a Flush, but it does not beat a Straight Flush, hopefully, the end will be you gathering up ALL their chips in a big pile in front of you.

Notice that if you had made a bet on the flop, your opponents might have folded (here, either might have bet on as both have potential), and you would have ended up with a pot only a fraction the size of the one you went on to win.

Intention: to keep your opponents in the hand, hoping that they make a decent hand and are prepared to bet, call, even raise you, so that you make the maximum profit from your dead-cert winning hand.