Certain things in this world are necessary evils. Politicians. Root canal. And in the poker world, crying calls. The crying call, a.k.a. the "I had to make sure" call, is that grudging call you make on the river when you know you're probably beaten. But you're not quite certain. So you call anyway-just in case. And sometimes crying calls are necessary, if only for the pot odds. As with everything else in poker, the trick lies in picking the right spots. When, against whom, and how often?
Knowing when to make that crying call, or when to just fold and save your money, depends on several factors: Your read on the bettor, the texture of the board, whether or not you have been showing weakness recently, and most important of all-the size of the bet facing you versus the size of the pot. A famous poker axiom states that it's generally better to make a bad call on the river than an incorrect fold, because the first mistake will cost you one bet, while the second mistake will cost you the entire pot. If the pot is large, losing it through an incorrect fold is a poker disaster. The bigger the pot, the more inclined you should be to make that crying call, regardless.
Because poker is such a situational game with so many different variables to consider, there's no exact formula for x-amount of big bets in the pot to equal a correct crying call. But with something like 10 big bets in the pot, as long as it's only one more big bet for you to call and see a showdown then-absent a strong read on your opponent indicating you're beaten- you should probably make the call. And when the pot starts to swell with 15, 20, or even more big bets, that crying call becomes almost mandatory, unless you are dead certain your hand is second-best.
Oftentimes, you'll be put to that decision after a scare card hits the board. Say you're in late position with K-J and the flop is K-J-8 with two diamonds. Checked to you, you bet-call, call, drop. Turn is the five of clubs. Again, you bet, two calls. River is the ten of diamonds. One opponent suddenly wakes up and bets out. This board is extremely coordinated, many hands can beat you now, and the action suggests that your great hand is toast. Would he bluff at you here, representing a made draw? Has he seen you fold to bets on the river lately? There are now 7.5 big bets in the pot, which is borderline. Your decision whether or not to make this crying call depends on your read of this particular player, including how you think he sees you.
Crying calls should be made more often against loose or aggressive players, and also when the pot is large, so it follows that crying calls are usually the right course of action to take in lower-limit games. In those games, pots are nearly always big enough to warrant a crying call on the end, and opponents are usually loose, aggressive, or just plain stupid enough to bet out with mediocre hands. This is not to say you should call willy-nilly on the river in low-limit games.
As always, it depends. Unfortunately, crying calls are an inescapable fact of poker life. But knowing the pot odds and knowing your opponents will help you decide when it's right to fold, and when it's okay to shed a fear tears. Or as Gandalf says at the end of Tolkien's great epic, The Lord of the Rings: "I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
