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						This is something I've been thinking about lately, and it's an underutilized facet of my game as well.  I could be way off base here, so please take the following with a grain of salt: 
 
The main advantage to pushing is fold equity.  It gives your hand additional value.  For example, if you have a drawing hand on the flop out of position against an aggressive opponent, and you have a 45% chance of winning the hand by the river, your opponent has more equity than you.  You could try pricing yourself in on the draw by making a small blocking bet to give yourself correct odds, but this may not be effective against the particular opponent.  Check/calling each street will usually be a bad play as well, since many opponents will not give you correct odds.   
 
However, pushing gives your opponent incentive to fold a certain % of the time, depending on stack sizes and other factors.  Sometimes he'll fold and you'll win the pot outright, and the rest of the time it'll be a virtual coinflip.  This can be very +EV if the pot is big enough and you have significant folding equity.
					 
				 
				
			 
			 
		  
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