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On the flop, we differentiate made hands from drawing hands (and trash hand, which only have a small part in this article). For several reasons, both of these hands can be raised on the flop.

With made hands you raise on the flop because you want to extract value from your opponent. You therefore raise, in the assumption of having the best hand with which you want to be paid off. For made, but fragile hands, this is also done for protection, as your opponent will often fold a hand which could otherwise beat you when it gets improvement.

With drawing hands, or draws, there also are many situations in which you can raise, even if you’re fairly certain of not having the best hand at the moment.

In general, you have to ask yourself the following question when holding a good draw: Is there a possibility that I can win the hand without a showdown, because I can make all my opponents fold their hand?

This way of playing a hand is called a semi-bluff and is described in the bronze-section: Semi bluff and pure bluff

In the gold-section this subject is analysed even further: Semi-Bluffs

Whenever you see the opportunity to win a hand without a showdown, you should play a good draw as aggressively as possible.  Yet there are also situations in which you don’t see this opportunity to make all opponents fold, and should still play your draw aggressively and raise or even cap.

In the next part we'll show you what the requirements are for playing a draw aggressively on the flop, even when you're certain you can't bring all your opponents to fold.

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