What does this mean (Skalnsky book)

My first post. Hi!

I have the book, Hold 'Em Poker by David Sklansky. I am re-reading it 3rd time. LOL.

On page 43 the following I do not understand. Can someone explain me what it means? Preferably with some example of a hand?

"Any hand that can call a raise cold is strong enough to raise with. This usually applies to after the flop also, and in fact, to all poker games. One frequently sees a player call a bet, not knowing the hand has been raised, and upon learning this he simply calls the full bet even though he could have pulled his original bet back and folded. Well, he almost certainly made a mistake. If his hand wasn't strong enough to raise with, it probably was not good enough to call a raise cold"

Ok, I have some idea in my head what it means but I won't bother you, cause it is wrong.

What Sklansky forgets is to mention what "call a raise cold" means.

Thank you in advance!

[Justin A]

Calling a raise cold means you have put no money in the pot, and then you call a raise. An example would be in hold'em where a player raises, and you are next to act and call.

I'd be careful reading that book, it's heavy reading for a beginning player. I strongly suggest starting with some beginning texts before moving on to Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players (HEPFAP).

this is the simplest book of sklansky. It is called Hold 'Em Poker. I have Advanced HE poker as well however i did not quote THAT book.

Still my question remains, who can explain me the paragraph from Sklansky's book.

Ty

[fnord_too]

I think he is talking abput Hold'em Poker, not HEFAP.

OP: Think of it this way: Calling a raise cold is putting the same amount of money at risk as raising a bet, BUT when you raise you have a chance to win the pot outright or gain a free card or a few other nice side effects, so calling a raise cold should actually require a tighter range of hands than raising a single bet that has a caller in between the better and you. When someone goes to call a single bet when in fact the bet has been raised, their hand probably is not strong enough to call two bets since if it was they would most likely be raising. Of course there are exceptions, maybe you have a mortal lock and think you can get more money into the pot by delaying your aggression. The exceptions are not too common, though.

[timprov]

The first two sentences are the only ones that are important. His example is silly.

Cold calling is simply calling one or more raises when you don't have money in the pot. Limping and calling a raise is not coldcalling, and neither is calling from a blind (though some people here like to refer to calling a raise from the SB as "cool-calling.")

Generally, cold-calling too many raises (especially preflop) is one of the larger mistakes beginners make in limit holdem. In most cases only the very top hands can be played profitably for two or more bets.

However, I think Sklansky goes too far: while it's rarely a good idea to be the first player to coldcall, often being the third or fourth player to do so isn't bad at all.

Here's a recent hand example of a bunch of coldcalling:
[ QUOTE ]

PRE-FLOP
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 calls, CO folds, Tapirboy calls, SB folds, BB calls.


[/ QUOTE ]
MP1, MP3, and I all coldcalled the raise from UTG+1.

Ok let's analyse it step by step:

Sklansky sais, "One frequently sees a player call a bet, not knowing the hand has been raised...".

How can you not know whether the hand has been raised? I don't get it.

[timprov]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok let's analyse it step by step:

Sklansky sais, "One frequently sees a player call a bet, not knowing the hand has been raised...".

How can you not know whether the hand has been raised? I don't get it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a fairly dumb example from B&M poker. If you haven't paid enough attention to the action in front of you, you may feel you're free to limp in when in fact one of the players has raised.

[Niediam]

You were paying more attention to... the football game, a magazine, the hot waitress, the moron going on and on about his bad beat, etc... than the hand being played.

[djoyce003]

The other posters have explained what 'cold-calling' means. His other point is that if your hand is good enough to "cold-call" a raise with, then it's likely that it is good enough to reraise with rather than cold-call. For example, you have QQ and the guy in front of you raises...well this hand is definitely good enough to call with...so that means it's good enough to reraise with.

In general it's better to be raising or folding than calling. You are either ahead and should be getting more money in, or you are behind and should be getting out....obviously odds considerations play a part in this and sometimes it's ok to just call if you are on a draw or something. Hope that clears it up.