Calling the Raise

You have the basics down, you know how to play position to your advantage, you have a good understanding of pre-flop starting hands, you know that playing your opponent is just as or more important than the cards. You just sat down at the table an hour ago, won a couple of little pots and have folded 80% of your hands. You’ve sized up the table as loose, aggressive, tight or passive, singled out a few opponents as targets or dangers to avoid. Confidence is high and your feeling good about your game.

You’ve read the books on how and why to raise, for value or to get other players to fold, to isolate an opponent. You know how to raise and why, do you stop to think why another player raised before you call? Did they raise to get players out, for value or to isolate you or another player? Who is your opponent, from what position did he/she raise from and what kind of hands are in their raising range?

What position are you in and what cards are you calling raises with? A suited or unsuited A/J is good for you to raise with from the button in a passive limp around hand, but is it good enough to call a 3x BB raise from UTG? Is it good enough to call with from MP or EP if the raise is behind you? Is K/Q good enough? Or A/Q, middle pairs 10/10, 9/9 or J/J?

What kind of game are YOU playing? Do you like being passive and call raises once in a while and hope to hit flops against aggressive players? Do you have a good read on your opponents, good enough to call a raise with nothing and outplay the raiser? Is A/K strong enough to call with? Who made that raise and why? Do they only raise premium top pairs like A/A, K/K and Q/Q or do they like to mix it up and raise with suited connectors? From what position?

When you call a raise you are NOT in control of the hand, more often than not you are probably behind, you are giving up an edge in the game. And in a game like poker it’s the edge that makes the difference between winning or losing.

When calling a raise consider re-raising, you want the edge, you want control of the hand, you want your opponent on pins and needles ready to muck his hand as soon as possible or to call with the second best hand. You have to have a reason, an understanding of your opponent and a plan if you’re going to enter a pot that has been raised, in front of you or behind.

You may not want to re-raise but call with a mid pair if the raise is affordable, if you catch a set then perhaps you can setup a trapping situation, maybe even a call with A/K is ok if you have the correct read on your opponent. If the flop comes A/K/2 you’re going to have to consider your opponents possible range of hands. So you have two pair. So what! Does your opponent have A/A, K/K or even 2/2? Is your opponent loose enough to raise with J/10 did he call your flop re-raise and bet into you with a Q on the turn? Did your opponent just make a straight or a set of queens?

Why did you call that raise? Do you know your opponent? Did you give up the edge or did you gain an edge? Is your opponent tight and aggressive or weak and passive? Can you or can you not outplay your opponent? Whenever you call a raise or even re-raise a raise you’re entering a danger zone. Do you know that? You should.

Consider not calling the raise and waiting until YOU have the advantage. You have the edge when you’re the aggressor, the first to enter the pot with the raise. If you get callers or a an opponent that re-raises you, even if you fold you still get the benefit of table image. Just as a caller to a raise your table image may suffer. Are you a calling station?

What cards you call with is important, but WHY makes all the difference.

Excellent article sir. It brings up some very good questions and I like when you say you need to have a plan if you're going to call a raise. That is very true, and it is essential in order to have success in touneys. Ring games are different, although a plan is also necessary for those and many aspects are similar. I play mostly tourneys.

In tournaments, prior to calling a raise, here are all the factors that I consider, in order:

1) What do I know about this opponent
2) Position (his and mine)
3) What do I know about opponents left to act after me
4) My stack as compared to raiser (for implied odds purposes)
5) Strength of my hand
6) Should I reraise?

In tournaments, other important factors to consider are: the stage we are in, how many M's does my opponent have (so you can evaluate his desperation level), and how many do I have + M's of players left to act.

All this makes for an extremely complicated picture, with many variables that make it impossible to play the same hand, from a certain position, the same way every time. Sklansky's "gap concept" is the way to go early on in tourneys, IMO. Mid to late stages, a change in pace is very necessary. This, in essence, is the most important concept to grasp. The dynamics of tourneys and your table will force you to adjust to all these situations that I listed above, and many times how deep you'll make it in an MTT crucially depends on how you adapt to these above variables, when to make profitable moves and when not to. In absence of these skills (and at times a bit of luck) its very hard to be successful in MTT's. I'm obviously not talking about what to do with AA, KK, or even QQ. With those starting hands alot of the considerations above get thrown out the window, needless to say why.

Going back to my list, you may notice that before I consider calling, I ponder a reraise. I'm trying really hard to enhance the aggression level in my game PF, particularly shorthanded but also in full tables. I really like the Phil Gordon quote " if a hand is good enough to call, its almost certainly worth a raise". Once again, there is no standard in this. The same hand I might reraise with in some circumstances, I might call or even fold in others. But, before calling, the "reraise" question always get thoroughly evaluated, I'm refering to hands like AJo, ATo and KQ suited or not. Then there is the all-in call, but all this ends up taking us out the context your article was intended for, so I'll skip it.

Anyway, once again very nice thread MrDaMan. It brings up some key skills that are necessary to be succesful in NLHE, unfortunately though, IMO, these get acquired mostly by experience and being very observant. At times, in poker just as in life, making mistakes is not necessarily bad if you learn a lesson from them, they can actually be profitable in the long run.