The rough guidelines of raising are to (a) consider how you want the person you’ll be raising to react to your bet, and (b) make the action that will most help you with these interests.
Ask yourself how likely a person is to fold to a raise, and then:
If you want that person to fold and you don’t believe she will, don’t bother raising and just call. You’re not helping your situation.
If you don’t want the person to fold, but you believe she will, wait and just call the hand for now. The river round will cost twice as much money and you’ll make more that way.
If you believe she may raise you back, and you don’t want to call that raise, don’t raise her right now. The best way to stop a raising war is to not do it yourself.
If you believe she may raise you back, and that’s what you want, what are you waiting for? Go go go. (Hey, are you sure you know what you’re doing?)
If you don’t care whether the person raises or folds, you should raise.
You must have a pretty good hand, and if she folds, you know you win right now. If she doesn’t fold, you’ll probably just win even more money later.
If you’re not sure how she’ll react, raise. Then you’ll find out — and you’ll almost certainly control the hand on the turn.
Bluffing is much more difficult in Limit than it is in No-Limit because the penalty for calling — at least in the short term — just isn’t that severe. For now, you should hold back on your aspirations of getting people to back away from the pot with your 2-7 off-suit.
