or has you completely dominated. or will completely fuck you when an seemingly insignificant card hits like a 4 and he had pocket 4s or a 9 to make his T9 2 pair.

you should raise to gain information as well, not just to win the pot. if he has AT or something he'll call your raise.

but i see your point beav and have definetly done this myself, like you said in the right circumstance. usually i'll do this on the river to a habitual bluffer when they miss their flush draw.

Exactly, it isn't something I always do, just in the right spot.

Similar to the QQ hand that Marm posted.

Yeah, sometimes an insignificant card will hit and cost you the pot, but you should win it often enough that it is worth the risk.

I prefer doing this when my opponent takes smallish stabs at the pot. If he will make ever larger bets, I would rather raise myself. I don't want to call for large portions of my stack.

Some of the players, you won't get any information with a raise, they will call or reraise no matter what they have, and are likely to come out betting on the turn, so all you are doing by raising is building a large pot with a hand you aren't sure is best. Or, they will just fold and you will lose a few chips. Or, if they really have a monster, you may end up losing more chips than you had too.

TJ Cloutier hates the "raise for information thing" he says you can get it info without raising - I think the truth is it is situational.

TJ Cloutier hates the "raise for information thing" he says you can get it info without raising

not to argue with TJ, but most players in NL or PL will bet out or raise with top pair weak kicker, or middle or bottom pair to see what their opponents do.