Raise when you hold the best hand.
When you were to be holding the best poker hand and someone else were to bet, you would be giving 
your opponents a free card if you were to simply call. There would be little difference between checking the best hand if no one were to have bet as yet, and calling with it once someone were to have wagered. So, once again, you would have to concentrate both on extracting the maximum from your poker rivals, and on how potentially disastrous granting a free card could be.
As a general policy, you must raise a bettor whenever you would be holding a weak hand that nevertheless would figure to be the best at this point, particularly if other poker players were to remain to act in the hand. For instance, you were to be holding a pair of jacks and the board was a four, a six, a nine, and a ten. You should raise if someone would bet and you would be next, for two reasons.
- You wouldn’t want to give poker players holding overcards or other draws a cheap shot at the pot.
- You would very likely be getting more money into the pot with the best hand, which would be a good thing.
The time to just call a bet with the best hand would be when you would want other poker players to call behind you. This would happen when your rivals would be drawing dead* or very close to it. Only a few big hands would warrant being played in this fashion – nut flushes, full houses, and four of a kind. And, you would have to smooth call ** only when you were to feel this action would build up a larger pot than a raise would, because you would fear that your poker rivals would run for the hills when faced with calling a raise. If they would be willing to call a raise on the turn, then by all means you should accommodate them.
* Drawing dead: Trying to make a hand that will lose if made. An example would be drawing to a flush when an opponent already were to have a made full house.
** Smooth call: Call, and specifically not raise, on your turn.
Check when you have a draw to the best hand.
This will be a tricky one, which experience would help you navigate more profitably. It would be 
enticing to bet the turn with only a draw when you would be in last position, as nobody would have shown much strength and you could win the pot with your semi-bluff*.
There will be times when this would be the correct play. Basically, if you would be against only one or two poker opponents who you were to feel made weak calls on the flop, a turn bet would be likely to win you the pot. If you were called, though, it would still be possible that you would improve to the best poker hand.
However, most of the time you would have to check and accept the free card graciously. Simply because your poker opponents were to check wouldn’t mean they weren’t prepared to call, and it would often be beneficial to you to get to the river as cheaply as possible when all you were to have was a draw.
One problem with betting the turn on the come** would be that it could place you in a difficult position on the river. Suppose you were to bet a flush draw on the turn, hoping to win the pot, but were called in two spots.
You would be left holding, for example, the same queen and jack you would have started with, a hand that probably would have no chance to win in a showdown. The two poker players would check to you again. What must you do?
* Semibluff: A bet made on a hand that would probably not be the best at the time of the bet, but that would have two ways to win: either by getting everyone else to fold or, if called, that might improve on succeeding cards.
**Bet on the come: Making a bet on a drawing hand, that is, when holding four cards to a flush or straight.
Now a blank* were to come on the river. Since you have seized the initiative in this pot and couldn’t win by checking you should bet again and hope that your opponents would release a small pair, ace high, or whatever they would have called with on the turn. Sadly, at this point the pot would grow quite large, and you would be likely to receive a curiosity call** from some sort of trivial hand.
Several poker opponents would call hoping that all you would have would be a busted flush draw. In this case, they would be right. Therefore, your decision to semi-bluff on the turn would actually be a two-big-bet decision, as you would have to be willing to fire twice to try to win the pot. This would be why it would usually be best simply to check your draw on the turn and hope for the best, unless you would have sensed weakness in all poker opponents in the hand.
*Blank: Previously we have defined this as a card that wouldn’t help your hand. More commonly, the term would refer to a card that wouldn’t appear to help anyone. For instance, if the board were a king, a queen, a jack, and a nine of mixed suits, a two on the river would be considered a blank.
**Curiosity call: A call from someone who were to be positive he would beat but would just want to know what you have, often accompanied by a statement such as, ‘I knew you had me beat, but I just had to see it,’ or, ‘I knew you had me beat but the pot had been too big to fold.’