calling a preflop raise

[umdpoker]

should i ever call a preflop raise?? i am pretty good about only seeing the flop with good starting hands. however, when people preflop raise i still call with something like kq. i have noticed that these hands are often dominated by people preflop raising. even when i hit the board hard (2 pair) i will often lose. is this bad luck, or should i never call a preflop raise with something i wouldn't raise myself? and even then, i should re-raise, right??? btw, i play in mostly .50-1 where you can't even really trust that the raiser has anything. they raise with absolute crap a lot.

[Brian]

Hi umdpoker,

There are certain times when it is correct to cold-call a pre-Flop raise. The most common is when there have already been a few others to cold-call the raise, and now you are getting the odds to call with your hand (usually a pocket pair). Cold-calling pre-Flop raises with KQ on a regular basis is going to get you into a LOT of trouble though. The reason is that KQ is a hand that will often make second best hand against a pre-Flop raiser. If you think that the person is raising with crap, then it is much better to re-raise yourself. There's nothing wrong with re-raising with KQ in some situations, but cold-calling with it is almost never right.

-Brian

[Mike]

"...where you can't even really trust that the raiser has anything..."

A good way to think about it is: You don't have to worry about a player raising with junk.

You do have to think about beating everyone that calls his/her raise with the cards you hold.