Most poker books teach that the best style to play is tight-aggressive. Pick good starting hands, but when you choose to enter a pot you want to play strong. A bet or raise gives you two chances to win, as Bob Ciaffone points out - you might make the best hand, or the other player may fold. If you call you will always have to show down the best hand.
The poker authors are right, of course, but like anything with poker there are no absolutes. There are some times to take your foot off the gas and just call. Here's a hand I played where I did just that. I don't claim to be an expert and I'm sure that not everyone will agree with my play of the hand, but that's OK. Let's look at it, and you can reach your own conclusions.
This was a NLHE cash game with a $50 max buy-in, $0.10 and $0.25 blinds. I had most of my first buy-in left.
I was in early position and picked up 8d 9d. I limped and three more players behind me limped as well, the small blind called and the big blind checked. We were 6 handed at the flop, which was not unusual. The game was very loose and I thought there was a good chance we would have a multiway unraised pot, which is why I tried to sneak in with suited connectors from the front.
The flop came TJQ with two spades. I had picked up the low end of the straight (the "sucker" straight). Anyone with AK had Broadway, the nut straight.
The small blind bet the size of the pot, $3. The big blind raised to about $7. I called. The player right behind me called, and the other two in late position folded. The small blind also folded. One of the late position players who folded wrote, "3 players with AK???"
The turn was a blank. The big blind bet $8. I called, and so did the player behind me.
The river was a low spade. The big blind bet $4, I called and so did the last player. The big blind turned over KQ, he had flopped top pair with an open ender. The player behind me mucked. My queen high straight was good, and I came very close to doubling up on the hand.
So, let's look in more detail at the decisions I faced and why I chose just to call.
On the flop I felt I had a better hand than the small blind or the big blind. For one of them to be ahead of me they would have to have AK or K9. That second possibility was pretty unlikely.
Neither of the blinds had raised, and I felt they almost certainly would have with AK and several limpers in front of them. Most players would raise it up to something like $3 there, they would want to thin out the junk hands and hopefully get heads up with someone. Also, many people would play the nut straight a bit slower than that on the flop, even with a possible flush draw on board.
I thought the small blind might have flopped a pair. The big blind's raise felt like a semibluff to me, I put him on a flush draw.
So, here I was faced with a bet and a raise, and I felt I had a better hand than either of them. My first instinct was to reraise, even to move in to protect my hand. The problem was that there were still three more players left to act behind me. If any of them had AK I was drawing almost dead. There were no diamonds on board, so my only chance would be a runner-runner ace and king for a split pot.
I did not want to get my money in when I might be drawing practically dead, but I also didn't want to fold. I felt like I might actually have the best hand at this point. So, I called to see what developed.
After the flop action was over the player that scared me was not the raiser, it was the player behind me who also called. I had hoped to get heads-up with the raiser, and a smooth call is sometimes the sign of big hand who is trapping. But I actually didn't put that last caller on AK. If he had the nut straight and and smelled a semibluff like I did on that raise, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have come over the top. A smart player would not mind getting their money in right there on the flop with the nuts, since it's 2:1 against the flush draw coming on two cards.
So, heading to the turn, I felt pretty good about my hand, but wary that I was being trapped with AK by the player behind me, and of the flush draw hitting.
The turn bet was $8 into a pot of about $27. It felt consistent again with a flush draw. I was getting over 4:1 to call and I thought there was a good chance my hand was good. But I still had the same problems as on the flop - AK had me crushed, and there was still a player left to act behind me.
I think some people would argue that I should have raised here to find out where I was at, but at this point I was drawing completely dead to AK and I did not want to put more money into the pot in that position. If I raised and someone reraised I would have to lay it down, no question. I wanted to show this hand down if possible, so I called.
The call on the turn by the player behind me was tough to figure out. It could be a trap, but a player would show a lot of patience to just call there again with the nuts.
At the river there was about $51 in the pot and the third spade came. The big blind bet $4. I had put him on a flush draw, but that bet actually felt too small for a completed flush. He might be trying to induce one of us behind him to raise, but I would have expected a bet of at least $10 from a flush with a pot of that size, even if they were trying to act weak.
Again I contemplated raising, but the weak bet could have come from someone who had the nut straight and was concerned about the flush. There was also the possibility that the player behind me had been flushing - he had called a bet on the turn where he was getting the pot odds to draw.
I was getting insane odds to call, almost 14:1. I would not have to be right very often to justify calling there. And if the player behind me put in a big raise, I could always get away from my hand. It turned out that he just called and I pulled down a huge pot.
Afterwards, the player who had made the comment on the flop about three of us having AK wrote this in the chatbox: "I folded 98." I believed him based on his reaction at the flop. I considered folding it there as well, but when the smoke cleared I was glad I had called.
As I said at the start, betting and raising are usually preferable to calling, but you should not "always" do anything in poker. I think there are situations where the pot size and your read of the players can justify calling. These are grey areas and you have to tread carefully, but some good calls can add to your win rate. Part of growing as a player is learning to navigate the sometimes murky waters of postflop play.
Ted