Beware the Minimum Raise

  Somebody once made the observation that less is more. While this idea doesn't really hold up when a relationship progresses to a stage when bras and boxer shorts are hanging from the lampshade, this philosophy does make some sense when from a Texas Holdem perspective.  So you are sitting at the table and one of your opponents makes a raise from an early position. The thing is that in this No Limit game your rival has only made the minimum raise. Usually a raise from the early position denotes a certain confidence in one's hand, but the small amount of the raise should give you a pause.  The small raise means one of two things. The first possibility is that the player doesn't know what they are doing. This is not something anyone can assume about a player they have never seen before. Thanks to the internet, even the freshest face kid can be a veteran with hundreds of thousands of hands under their belt. Unless the player has done something to make you think they are greener than immature tomato, then it is best to assume they have some idea of what they are doing.  The small bet can be made by a player who has some legitimately playable cards that are worthy of their out of position raise, but the low dollar amount can be their way of trying to get some action. The hope is that the small bet will be perceived as a transparent bluff, and that players will call the raise, or even re-raise.  Beware the minimum raise, it may be a player trying to suck you into a bad situation like a black hole absorbing light.