When is flat calling better than raising?

A very simple question, but obviously an extremely complex answer. My question is pretty general though, what are the situations in which calling a raise preflop is better than reraising? Is this often? Can this even be answered without specific hand analysis?


Sorry for the extremely general question, just trying to improve my game. I also see people giving advice and saying to narrow their own VPIP and 3-bet % stats. So, if you are playing tight and only playing premium hands, is it ever right to flat call an open raise preflop?

In general,
when you have a hand that will hit hard or miss completely on the flop and
the original raiser is very likely to have a hand strong enough to pay you off if you hit and
the original raiser's stack is deep enough to give you good implied odds and
the chances are slim that someone left to act after you will 3bet.

So basically against a single raiser with no intervening callers call to set mine with pairs that you can't 3bet for value, also call with some suited Aces that you intend to play for small pots with TP or big pots with nut flushes / big draws.

And even then only in position for the most part.

Appreciate the response. Currently I actually pretty much only flat call small/medium pocket pair and suited aces, so it seems like I am doing that part right I guess. I probably need to focus on folding these hands in early positions instead of hoping not to get raised by somebody behind me.


Thanks again!

Sori said:

Appreciate the response. Currently I actually pretty much only flat call small/medium pocket pair and suited aces, so it seems like I am doing that part right I guess. I probably need to focus on folding these hands in early positions instead of hoping not to get raised by somebody behind me.


Thanks again!

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Are you talking about calling with them from EP (Like UTG open and you call from UTG+1)? If so, yeah, you should be folding them unless no one left to act is the squeezing type when I'd still call the pairs but ditch the weaker suited Aces. I def. think you should be opening the pairs and better suited Aces even from EP though (if you're playing FR I guess folding all but say 66+/AQs+ is probably best).

Appreciate the response. Yes. It is so hard for me to get away from pocket pairs, even in early position. This is no doubt a leak in my game, but I guess when I am at the table I hope that I can get away with limping into a flop. If not, I tell myself its only a nickel and fold to raises.


I do fold small/mid suited aces in EP as well as MP in full-ring games.


Question: If your table seems to allow multiple people to limp and see a flop way to often, should I be trying to broaden my starting range and limp in some marginal situations, and fold if i don't love the flop?

I would say no (as in never limp 1st in) but I'm sure there are very limited situations where it could apply. My suggestion would be to broaden your open raising range on those tables because those same passive players are probably going to fold most of the time when you cbet postflop. You don't have to get crazy with this but on those tables adding in a few of those Aces you're tossing now and maybe a few lower SCs should pay off nicely.

You should flat when you have decent equity vs. someone's opening range but are crushed by their 4-bet/stackoff range.

baudib1 said:

You should flat when you have decent equity vs. someone's opening range but are crushed by their 4-bet/stackoff range.

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Its never that simple.

Flat pre to:

1) Disguise the strength of your hand (either to squeeze trap, or trap postflop).
2) Exploit an opponent with postflop leaks.
3) Get to a flop with a hand that flops well, but can't stand a four bet. (as Baudib suggests)
4) For implied odds (like WV said).
5) To get bad players behind you to enter the pot as well.
6) Defend your button against players that don't fold to 3-bets.

There's plenty of times when its right to just call pre. But there are way more times when its wrong. So to simplify things, we just tell new players to have a skinny vpip-pfr split.

yeah of course I agree, I am mostly speaking to the fact that too many people 3-bet with hands that are obviously ahead of someone's opening range but a total waste to 3-bet because you can't really get any money in good when you get 4-bet, i.e. 99 OTB when a reg opens UTG.