Part of the charm of poker is the delicate and tough decisions we face when playing. We have a feeling that our top pair with a bad kicker is the best hand, but we are not sure. We think that our opponent might be bluffing, but how do we know? This insecurity gnawing at us when playing adds to the depth of the game and puts us on the edge of our seats when playing online poker.

A good rule of thumb is, when we are unsure, to either raise or fold. Let us assume that we called a preflop raise from a tight player with JTs after a caller in-between. The flop comes T73 rainbow. The early position raiser bets out, the player between us folds. What should we do?
First of all, we need to realize that our holding is very marginal. Sure, we have top pair, but our kicker is bad and we are facing a tight player. It is not exactly a hand to write home about (unless we have our mom on MSN and want some good parental advice).

In this situation, our options are to raise or fold. There is nothing wrong in folding. A bit on the tight side, sure, but if we put the tight player on a good hand there is no reason to continue playing. We can, however, test the tight player by raising. If the opponent re-raises we just fold, if he calls we do not put another cent in the pot unless we improve to two pair or three of a kind. Playing like this has its advantages: we avoid to pay off our opponents' good hands (for example, over pairs or sets), but we win most of the times he is continuation-betting with a hand like AK or 88.

The same is true for a hand like 87 on a flop like T76 - a very marginal holding indeed. Middle pair and a gutshot straight draw is not really a hand we like to get deeply involved with, but if we feel the opponent might be bluffing it is not wrong to test him with a raise. Folding is correct, but often, so is raising.
The common denominator for both hands is our action on the flop. Raise or fold. No calling! This allows us to avoid trouble later in the hand, on more expensive streets. If we face resistance, we are probably beat. If we are lucky, we draw out on the turn and get paid off, but otherwise we just toss our hand in the muck without losing too much money.

Should we just call the flop with a marginal hand, there is a risk of us trying to bluff should the opponent check the turn, or maybe it will be too alluring to call on the river just to see him turn over a better hand. It all boils down to avoiding trouble on later streets by acting on the flop. It both saves money and makes money, and is therefore a good play.

Written by Andris Kangeris for 24hPoker.com