Play Free Poker Online Guide To How And When To Call In Poker Games
Regardless of if you just play free poker online or regularly grace the big Vegas tables a fact of poker life is that aggressive players make all the bets and raises and seem to get most of the chips.
Players who mainly call are classified as passive. This is because calling puts you into a decision which the bettor hopes you to make. But if you have tons of reasons to call, and you have contemplated about it very carefully, you can call with no shame.
Here is one such hand (Shame on him if he folds):
BLINDS 60k/120k, ante 15k
PREFLOP:
A has 5h-5d, raised to 310k (under the gun)
B has Kc-10c, calls 310k (from middle position)
The raise A makes from under the gun (UTG) implies his hand is strong, but keep in mind that A is aggressive and a tad loose and can represent any hand. Also, A can make everyone fold. B’s K-10 suited is good for just calling, and he does.
With K-10, one should be more careful if a King comes up. With a King, A may have K-J or A-K (A-K, especially from a raise under the gun). I don’t think B is aware of this, maybe because he hasn’t seen the Flop yet. Here it is:
FLOP: 10d-4c-2d
Now only a Ten comes, which is more favorable for B. Those who do not have flush draws with two Diamonds may play a J-10 or a 10-9 strongly, and the King kicker is very strong.
A bets 535k
Because A raised under the gun, he tries a continuation bet. If he gets called, he can put B on a flush draw or a small pair (like 7-7), so he can frisk away later with not much loss.
But B may want to end the hand with his Pair of Tens, probably because overcards can fall. Moreover, A has been too aggressive all throughout, as we said, and it may be with two face cards or A-x, so B returns A’s favor:
B raises to 1.61m
A needs 1.075m to call
Because A has been representing a strong hand so far (raising under the gun and continuation-betting), he might as well stay consistent. Moreover, A may think that B raised because he thought A had nothing, and he is trying o push A out of the pot with something like K-J or a Flush draw.
As for the possibility of a Ten in B’s hand, why would A think B had a Ten? Even if B did, he would just call (commonly) and then check-check it all the way, because a Pair of Tens is not so strong, especially if faced with a three-bet like this:
A moves all-in 3.075m
B needs 2.5m to call (Pot now about 7.5m)
Maybe A moved all-in because his Pair of Fives have value on a board with only one overcard and whose caller may have a Flush draw. In this case, the caller may still be reluctant because even with a Flush draw with two overcards, it’s still a draw. But he may also be thinking that B is putting a play on him, so he played-back.
Now B is put on the decision which calls for a call.
Here are B’s reasons why he may not call (which B may be thinking, but which will be my reasons for so doing):
(1) A three-bet plus all-in may signify J-J or higher, which is very likely if only small cards are on the table. Or: even a Set which A may have used to trap with.
(2) He is getting approximately 3-to-1 on a call (2.5 million to win approximately 7.5 million), but he should call only if he is getting 4-to-1 (21% chance of hitting Two-Pair or Trips), which is the right price.
(3) If he calls, he will have six 6 million or so chips left. But if he doesn’t, he will have about 8.5 million remaining, and his loss is relatively small for his stack (which is nearly 10 million).
Now here are B’s reasons why he should call:
(1) He can knock out an opponent who has proven to be very dangerous so far.
(2) Maybe A is the one on a Flush draw. Or maybe a Flush draw with two overcards where both of them have nearly equal chance of winning. So it’s OK.
(3) Maybe A put B on a Flush draw and decided to push B out of the pot instead of letting a Diamond emerge. So A’s all-in is just a bluff now.
(4) Maybe A put B on a bluff and decided to counter-bluff.
(5) With only one overcard which is not so likely to be in someone’s hand just as a face card is, B may put A on a pocket pair 5-5 to 9-9. In that case, he has a better Pair (Tens).
(6) He can lift himself up to 14 million chips after this.
(7) It is because B’s guts says so.
With these things in B’s mind, but still brewing over the cons, B tried hard to decide. For a long time he stared at his opponent and the Board. He commented first, You may hate me for this,” but then added, as if nothing but instinct prompted him, “but I call.”
B calls 2.5m (Pot just above 9 million)
A is in trouble now. B won the hand and knocked out A (who is Antonio Esfandiari! B is Steven Begleiter). B may be neutral in choosing between folding and calling, but if I’ll call, I’ll call not solely because of value of the Tens, but because of the above reasons.
In summary
I know this may seem like a lot to take in all at once, the fact is though that while poker is an easy game to learn it is hard to be very good at, hence the crazy stupid “chip flinging” you will come across on many poker sites.
Yes it is mad that so many players play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who is learning to play correctly. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can turn mercenary and hunt them down in droves in low stakes real money games as well as free online poker sites sites that pay out real money like NoPayPOKER and happily build your skills and bankroll!
As ever practice makes perfect so read, understand and play free poker sites to learn to play holdem good and get your skills finely honed.
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July 30th, 2010
With the immense popularity of free online poker and poker shows like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, poker, like basketball, has developed a jargon of its own. Many of poker terms have been around for a long time so it seems the core game maybe hasn’t changed so much.
Checks, bets, raises, calls, bluffs, and all-ins are still found and still exist with connotations like: to ‘bet’ is aggressive; to ‘raise’ more aggressive; to ‘call’ is never aggressive; to ‘check’ is still passive, unless you are plotting a raise after it. Bluffing, well that’s always aggressive. ‘All-ins’, in No-Limit, are the most aggressive. as far as many poker players are concerned.
But newer terms have emerged, thanks to the poker commentator’s ideal to be crisp and short. For instance, where a commentator would say ‘check-raise’ today I imagine a 1970 commentator to have said in the same situation ‘He raised after a check.’ ‘Check-call’ may be ‘calling after checking’. ‘Value bet’ may be ‘betting for value’ or ‘betting because A’s hand is good, and he wants B to call’. With this said I’m not implying these terms were not used before the poker explosion. It may be that they are not clear enough to a general audience before in a time when poker was accessible only to a few.
So let us analyze some compound poker terms, like ‘check-raise’ and ‘check-call’. We will be using the terms in their traditional sense, i.e, checks and calls are non-aggressive, and bets, raises, bluffs, and all ins are aggressive.
#1 Check-raise: To check-raise is to check, then if the opponent bets, you raise. For instance, in a Board with 4-7-J and you have 6-5, if you are the first to act, you can check-raise. You can check because you can hit your Straight for free later if your opponent checks, and if your opponent bets, you can raise, so he will think you are on a bluff or on a made hand, so if you hit your Straight later your hand is disguised.
It’s also possible to check-raise if you think your opponent’s weak so that he’s not going to call if you bet, but you want your opponent to think you’re weak so that he can bluff, then you can raise him.
#2 Check-call: To check-call is to check, then if your opponent bets, then you call. Check-calling is standard for the above Board (4-7-J and you have 6-5),p provided you are priced to hit your Straight later. Check-call can also be good if you flopped a monster on the Flop and you want your opponent to represent it so you can trap him.
#3 Value bet: Value is the relative strength of your hand compared to what you think your opponent has. For example, you have A-10 in a Flop of J-10-6-5-2. You can consider your Pair of Tens to be not so strong, but if you put your opponent on 7-7 or weaker, then you can bet a small amount at the river (say, one-third or one-half the pot) so your opponent will pay you off if he, indeed has the 7-7, and if it turns out that he has the Jack, your loss is not so great. The point is you bet the largest amount you think your opponent will call.
#4 Check-raise-bluff: Now we move on to more complex compound terms. You usually check-raise if you have a strong hand or a drawing hand that you want to disguise. If you have none, but want to represent, do this. Check, then if he bets, put pressure on him.
#5 Value-bet-bluff: A value-bet is generally a fraction of a pot, typically 1/3 to 2/3. A bluff is usually greater than the pot (twice or more to be credible). If you bet 1/3 or 2/3 of the pot and you have nothing then strong players are likely to see the value-bet and fold. In this case, your bluff works, with less danger than a traditional bluff, for a traditional bluff may involve more than the pot or even an all-in, while a value-bet-bluff involves just a bet that is value-bet sized.
#6 Three-bets and four-bets: A three-bet means this: Someone bets (or raises preflop), then someone reraises, then someone reraises again (possibly the first raiser). This action is the third, hence ‘three-bet’. If anyone moves over the top after this, then this action is the fourth, hence ‘four-bet.’ To reraise a raise requires a very strong hand, then to reraise this requires a far stronger hand, then to reraise this reraise requires a hand far more stronger. Unless one is representing. So we can make terms like ‘three-bet-bluff’ and ‘four-bet-bluff’, meaning ‘a bluff with a three-bet or a four-bet’.
#7 Bluff all-in: An all-in implies a strong hand. If you have nothing and this is what you do, then you ‘bluff all-in’. It is good to bluff all-in in a dangerous board (one off a Straight or a Flush, or a paired Board) but it is more dangerous, because your opponent may have the nuts and call you. In less dangerous boards, you can just bet and your opponent will fold if he has nothing – it has the same effect as the bluff all-in.
#8 Call all-in: Technically, call all-in is non-aggressive. To call is not aggressive; you just moved all in because you have a hand that you will be willing to move all-in if you acted first, and someone just set you up to it (or maybe you slow-played and your opponent became aggressive and pushed you all-in and you called).
#9 Check-raise-all-in: This is very aggressive! You check, another player bets, then you go all in. A lot of players won’t interpret it as a bluff, and will call only if they have a hand. Say, on a board with J-10-Q-7-6, even with A-Q it is difficult to call a check-raise-all-in. You must have, say, A-K or 9-8 to do it, or a Flush.
#10 Check-raise-bluff-all-in: The #9 when you have nothing. Say, in the above board, you have 5-5. You just represent a strong made hand.
You can make some more variants of these poker moves. Enjoy it but don’t go too far! Value-bet bluffs will not be understood by weak players, and weak players will call check-raise-bluff-all-ins just as they will call regularly.
To read more articles like this and learn to play poker for free check out the NoPayPOKER.com blog which is full of free poker games tips and lessons as well as offering a no risk free online poker site where you can put theory into practice.
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June 4th, 2010