Decision Point: In a Cash Game, it folds to us in the Hijack and we raise with A♣Q♦. The Big Blind calls. The Flop comes A♦7♠3♥, and the Big Blind bets. Action is on you, what do you do here?

Pro Answer: In this hand we raised with AQ in the Hijack seat and were called by only the player in the Big Blind. Our opponent bets out into us in a situation where we would have likely continuation bet had they checked.

Many opponents will do this with marginal made hands and bluffs and have strong hands far less often. If we choose to raise, we will likely fold out many of the worse hands that we could get more value from on future streets.

We will also fold out pure bluffs. Raising does not maximize the value of our hand against our opponent’s range.

Since we are in position against a single opponent on a fairly dry flop, we are in an ideal situation to simply call this bet. By calling, we keep our opponents hand range wide and allow them to potentially fire additional bullets with hands that we have beat.

Calling also has the advantage of exercising pot control those times that they beat us, such as when our opponent has flopped a set. Against our opponent’s overall range, calling both extracts more value from worse hands and loses fewer chips against strong hands.

Calling with the intention of going to controlled showdown will net the most chips in the long run.

Calling is the best play.