Cold Calling

I seriously dislike cold calling. I tend to take the view that if a hand is not good enough to re-raise with, then it’s probably not good enough to cold call with. I can’t really think of specific examples of when I might cold call, but maybe something like JJ or AK against a particularly tight bandit with a very low PFR. It’s worth pointing out that my tendency would be to re-raise rather than throwing down a premium hand (eg AA-TT, AKs, AKo – though it’s very much dependant on who put in the raise).

I’ve just checked in PT and my cold call % over the last 7000 hands is 0.13%! Popular opinion would suggest that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but do I take it to the extreme?

Boltneck

I agree Im not into cold calling either especially when a tight aggressive player raises the pot. I only call with jj or lower pockets anything else I reraise and hope he has ak aq aj. Trying to force him into checking or rolling the dice with me. Stack size in the end is the maint point I look at. I ask myself am I willing to sisk my whole stack with whats in my hand.

Thanks for that unlucky, I'd go along with what you say. However, I should perhaps point out that I play (almost) exclussively limit cash games, so stack size is not a consideration for me

Boltneck

In limit, I would only cold call a single raise with AQs, KQs, or AJs. Better hands, re-raise. Worse, fold.

I don't know much about limit, but one of the things I know is that cold calling is pretty bad.

From SSH:

"Never cold-call preflop raises with easily-dominated, off suit hands." (p 63).

Regarding "Little Off Suit Broadway" cards (AT, KJ, QJ, KT, QT, JT):
"Cold calling raises with these hands is one of the most common, and most costly, preflop mistakes." (p 74)

"If you find that you cold-call as little as three or four times per session (on average), you are cold-calling too much. (p 85)

My cold call percentage over my last 10,000 hands is a little under 3%, so maybe I cold call too much (although I see some with cold-call percentages over 40!). I think it should be done in only a couple of circumstances. Against a very tight opponent as you described above or even better against some maniac when you'll have position after the flop and you're sure he'll bet out but he might not call a rereaise preflop.

I've never played Limit Hold'em, so take the following with a grain of salt.

In No Limit, I mostly cold call for implied odds. If I call with a suited connector or a small/middle pair and I hit big (i.e. a set, a straight, a flush) there's a good chance I'll double up, especially against big pairs like AA or KK.

In Limit Hold'em, I think it's almost impossible to double up in a single hand unless you're really short, so I'd say that cold calling with the aforementioned hands cannot be profitable because they hit too rarely.

However, there are three other hands that I often cold call with:
TT and JJ -> these hands are strong enough to hold on their own. They can take down a pot against AK, AQ and smaller pairs without making a set.
AK -> I very rarely reraise with this hand, I much prefer to see a flop. If I hit the Ace or the King, the hand is almost always good, and if my opponent has JJ, QQ, AQ or similar you can even take a good chunk of money off of him.

Well, when you're capping the PF action, I don't see a problem with cold-calling with good pot odds / high implied odds.
Like, say you're BB and UTG min-raises, HJ, CO, button, and SB all call, and you have 66. Calling and playing for set equity is the best option here imo?

If you are in the big blind then your call isn't considered "cold". Also, OP is playing limit, where cold calling is one of the biggest sins around since your implied odds are no where near what they are in NL.

Ah. Did not know this.
I don't see this mentioned in original post...

oh wait, he mentions it later, nvm

I also missed that he was playing limit. I know less about limit than NL (hard to believe but true).

Thanks for the feed back, and apologies for omitting to mention in my initial post that I was referring to limit poker.

Regards