If you can call you can raise.

[wampole]

If I am playing with a lot of "worms" (my own poker term short for bookworm. they play right out of the book) I will often just call or check and let them raise. It is the old Tanaka strategy of playing passive and trapping. It works well in lower limit as you will always have people over betting their raises. If I am playing with a lot of calling stations or ace chasers and I get a strong hand then absolutely this makes sense. There is no perfect strategy. You must always judge the players you are against.

 

[fhruhrhit]

raise is terrible for me
big money pressure,,,,

 

[sammy22]

I've often heard "If you can call you can raise" in poker. Is this true? Sure it can give you another way to win if everyone folds to your raise, but is always better to raise or is calling sometime a powerful move? When? What do people think?

Are you referring to preflop in tournament play? If so, I’m very interested to hear players view on this.

If you’re 1st to enter the pot preflop, do you have to raise or is it ever ok to just open-limp?

 

[Amanda A]

Yes I was referring to pre-flop play, sorry should have specified. Thanks everyone for all the comments!

 

[Smokewood]

Everytime it is your turn to act just ask yourself these questions:

1. Can I raise here? If yes raise, if no continue.
2. Can I FOLD here? If yes fold, if not continue.
3. Make the call.

The raise should be your first option, FOLD is second, and if you cannot do either... then call.

 

[sammy22]

But instead of open-raising isn’t it ever just ok to open limp, with hands like small pp’s or small suited connectors from early or middle position? Just to see the flop cheaply? Or perhaps to mix up your play, to help hide your hand ranges?

 

[blueskies]

Nah. If u have a mediocre hand or a bluff catcher u shd be calling not raising.

 

[zwbb]

One major situation is when calling is the best solution than re-raising, when your hand is ahead of the opponent's range, but will be overridden if substantial money is invested in the bank.


For example, if someone raises from the first position on the full table, everyone folds to you, and you are in the middle position with hands like T-T or A-Q, then almost always you should call if your stacks are deep enough.

 

[Syltan]

When you feel the weakness of the opponent to raise when you feel the power call.

 

[Mikeloti13]

Completely true. If you want to play that hand, its either call or raise depends on your opponent and your goal for that hand.

 

[cubons]

Depends on action[emoji28] sometimes you can win more with folding.

 

[Eric Salvador]

That statement has some truth but isn't always true. You need to protect your range which means in some situations calling may hurt you range or raising may hurt your range. So it literally has to be one or the other. Another reason why I think this is false is because of this: I'm in the BB and the button opens for 2.2bb, SB folds and I call with Ac8d. The flop comes 8s6s2h. I have no blockers for any of the straight or flush draws and top pair top kicker in this situation is very vulnerable to variance. This should be a prime area where you want to create your donk betting range. The reason is you want to deny equity to hands like 74s or T9s while increasing the pot in case you win at showdown. Checking in situations like this will make for tough spots on the turn with any over card other than the Ah but even when that card hits it makes your opponents range stronger with heart flush draw.

 

[Miketheman190]

The biggest difference if calling closes the round of betting

 

[Gohaku94]

Every situation is different. You can't always call preflop and you can't always raise. It depands on the action behind, the players left to act, your stack size and their stack size, type of game.. yeah so it's totally stupid to raise in every situation [emoji14]

 

[wkshaggy]

Completely not true. Hands should be played situationally with information. You can't play every spot the same.

 

[8bod8]

AFAIK
The term over simplifies the game and belongs in the beginners section.
And yes, it's limited to:
- pre flop
- first action (no other bets have been placed)

 

[Izazul]

To call or to raise, obviously if you believe you have the best hand and the other players is just playing aggressive you would raise. If your betting on hitting a big hand then maybe a call...case by case decision....But very true if you can call, you can raise but then comes the question how much do you raise ???

 

[pauloandre100]

Depends on to many factors. I think you should raise greats hands.

 

[xpvictor1]

Sometimes I would rather limp in.

A limp in can be as effective as a raise sometimes. If you have the bankroll and out of position, then why raise with a minimal hand if you can get away with a minimum bet?

 

[blueskies]

To bet or raise, you are trying to extract value out of a better hand or get a worse hand to fold.

If you have an ok but beatable hand and you bet/raise, then you will be called by a strong hand and you fold out weaker hands.

 

[Miketheman190]

Obviously not true. Can call third pair. Wouldn't ever raise it. It doesn't get as many folds as you might think.

 

[CallmeFloppy]

I think the point of it is to get players to think more about what they are doing. It is easy to fall into a passive play style and not think about what is really going on in the hand with hopes the next card helps or doesn't hurt you.

I think the more accurate is to think "If I can call, am I better of raising? If I can't raise, am I better off just folding?"

 

[Jack Reacher]

Good tight player will definitely stick with this rule,i mean you cannot be a tight player and simultaneously limping.Create strategy what suits you the most=read what gives you profit the most and stick to it like your life depends on it.Dont get complacent when you start to show profit is also important.

 

[Andrey Zubkov]

too many factors. The idea is true - raise is better call. But it depends on the situation

 

[badameli]

calling is a legitimate play when you want a player to bet into you. If there's a big draw on the board and you are ahead but don't have a made hand - calling is legit. Same with if you are ahead and you think your opponent is betting his draw.

I play tournaments primarily. I'd rather reduce my variance. Adding money to a pot can put more of your chip stack at risk on 4th and it compounds it on 5th.

If you find you are getting bluffed out of pots too much on the river (you have to fold every that gets there on the river) you are telegraphing what you have too much and you've helped build a pot without enough of an edge to make it worthwhile.