by Lou Krieger
 
It’s almost inevitable. You’re sitting in a poker game ready to act on your hand and there’s a raise. You wanted to play your hand, but now what should you do? Do you fold? Do you call and hope for salvation on the flop, or do you reraise to try to seize control of the hand because you think you have the best hand right now and want to get more money in the pot and play it against fewer opponents?
 
There are lots of reasons to reraise, and you and your opponents will often reraise for a variety of reasons— some solid, some not so good. So let’s try to put some perspective on this most aggressive of poker plays. Reraising for Value. This is the core three-bet. You think your hand is best, and you want to get more money in the pot while eliminating drawing hands that otherwise might stick around and get lucky on subsequent wagering rounds. And your opponent’s response to your reraise—does he fold, call, or make it four bets— will help you define the strength of his hand, and determine how yours stacks up against it.

 Which hands to reraise with is a different topic entirely, but in short, against a maniac who is prone to raise with absolutely anything, your reraising hands might be a handful, but against a fairly tight and aggressive player you might want to save your reraises for Q-Q through A-A, and A-K. We can abbreviate that range by saying, Q-Q+, A-K. But against a real fish who is prone to call reraises with a wide variety of hands, you might reraise with 9-9+, AJ-AK.

 Three-betting Light. Reraising with a narrow range of hands runs the risk of predictability, especially if you play against the same opponents regularly. Predictable play is exploitable and needs to be balanced to provide some cover for your good hands and give your opponents pause—along with a reason to call your three-bets with weaker hands.

 Three-betting light is a semi-bluff of sorts. You are reraising an opponent who raised before the flop with a hand that does not figure to be the best hand right now but still has two things going for it: It can improve to a better hand or it might win the pot right now if your opponent folds to your reraise. In addition to its present value, it also offers some cover for those times when you reraise with very big hands. After all, if you never three-bet light, your opponents would have no difficulty putting you on a very select range of hands whenever you did reraise. When that happens, they’ll make the best decision against your reraise every time.

 At some point, you will three-bet light, be called, and win the pot in a showdown. Suppose you three bet a weak raiser with Jc-Tc and wound up winning the pot on the river when you showed two pair. When that happens your image will be forever changed in the minds of your more observant opponents. Once they realize that you are capable of making it three bets with J-Ts, or even T-9s or 9-8s, they will be more prone to pay off your future reraises.

 Reasons to Reraise. Building a pot with the best hand is the first and foremost reason to reraise, but you can also build a pot with a big draw—perhaps a draw to the nut flush with either top pair or two overcards—and you do not need to be a favorite to win the pot to make it a profitable play, because raising can be profitable with less than the best hand whenever action from weaker hands supports your play.

 More to come next time in this two-part series on three-betting.

 Visit Lou Krieger online at www.loukrieger.com, where you can read his blog, and check out all of his books. Write directly to him at loukrieger@aol.com.