This is the third and final article in a series about calling. When we left you last, I had Ah-9h in the big blind. The pot was raised to three times the big blind and attracted four callers. The flop was 9-9-Q of three different suits.
The hand was checked to the raiser who made a continuation bet of half the pot. He was called by a player to my right. I wanted to lure those behind me into the fray and give the player who was driving the hand a chance to bet again on the turn, so I called. My call had a daisy chain effect that brought in the two players behind me.
The turn card was a trey. The initial raiser bet out again. The player to my right folded, and I raised about three-fourths the size of the pot, which dropped the remaining callers. I felt they would fold to any bet, because the trey that fell on the turn provided neither help nor hope to anyone who was sticking around for one more card. The river card was also a blank. My opponent checked. I bet enough to put him all in and he folded. I would have liked to have taken all his chips, but that wasn't to be. Nevertheless, by calling instead of raising on the flop, I put myself in position to win far more chips than I would have if I showed my true strength too early in the hand.
Buying an inexpensive card: Calling is usually a better idea than raising if you want to buy an inexpensive card. Maybe you're hoping to catch a card that will pair your kicker and propel you from one pair to two pair-a hand you can use to seize control of the action and bet or checkraise the turn. Even if you don't pair your kicker, you might see a turn card that looks benign enough to convince you that your hand is the best one at that point. In these situations the choice of tactics is often a judgment call. If you don't think that raising will force your opponent to fold, calling is often a better choice.
Calling from the blind: Calling from the blind is usually a good decision when you don't have a hand strong enough to justify a reraise. While the blinds suffer the disadvantage of having to act first on each succeeding betting round, they do have the advantage of playing hands that are completely disguised.
Having to act first in the blinds is a big disadvantage. The only compensating edge is the option to raise on the first betting round or to check a big hand and see the flop with a well-disguised holding that other players won't suspect until it costs them a few chips.
Calling with big hands: When you have a really big hand, your concern is not whether you'll win the pot, but how much money you'll win. You want to convince your opponent that he has the best hand, which is often as easy as giving him a free or inexpensive card in hopes that he'll improve enough to get into trouble. Then you have to extract the maximum amount you can from him. Because calling does not reveal the strength of your hand in the same way that a raise does, your call helps lead your opponent down that primrose path. When that happens, he'll do the betting for you, at least until you lower the boom later on in that hand, when you hope he is so committed to the pot that you will wind up taking his entire stack.
While betting and raising is still the hallmark of winning poker, don't ignore the subtle benefits of quietly calling when you want to give your opponents enough rope to hang themselves, or see another card or two at a bargain price. It can reap big rewards.
