does not cold-calling apply to NL as well?

[tpir90036]

over in the limit fourms, the old hands always say to either 3-bet or fold in most situations and not to cold-call a raise. does this apply to no-limit as well? i understand not cold-calling raises with crap like AJo....so here is an example:

i am on the button in a UB 1/2 NL game with QQ. an EP player who has me covered raises to 4xBB. i would 3-bet this if it were a limit game....but does the same advice apply here? how do things change if i had JJ? TT? is there anything wrong with cold-calling and seeing the flop in these examples or should i try to take control in the hopes that he misses the flop heads up?

enough questions.... thanks for your time.

[Nottom]

No, NL is a different beast than limit because you are much less likely to be in a multi-way raised pot in a NL game which is the main reason to 3-bet in limit. Additionally, 3-betting in NL opens you up to an all-in from the original raiser in NL, but only another SB in a limit game.

You should be very careful when calling raises in NL, but 3-betting is a mistake in most cases except for with your very best hands.

In your examples, I would generally re-raise with QQ. Maybe with JJ against a loose raiser. I'm nearly always going to just call with TT. Of course the amount of the raise and the size of the stacks are a big factor in my decisions here.

[tpir90036]

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you are much less likely to be in a multi-way raised pot in a NL game which is the main reason to 3-bet in limit.

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very good point. i knew i could count on 2+2 to help my faulty thinking.

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Additionally, 3-betting in NL opens you up to an all-in from the original raiser in NL

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yet another good point.

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Of course the amount of the raise and the size of the stacks are a big factor in my decisions here.

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that part i knew /images/graemlins/smile.gif

thanks for the response. have a good weekend...

[crockpot]

depends a lot on who you're up against. if the person is likely to put in a big reraise with KK and AA and nothing else (like many players will), you should raise, intending to fold to a reraise.

if he's a loose raiser who may put in a reraise with lesser hands, smooth calling makes more sense, since you are worried about a flopped overcard regardless of whether other players come in behind you.

the main problem with smooth calling is that you will have nothing to gauge whether you are up against kings or aces, and can easily lose your stack finding out.

[Zag]

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over in the limit fourms, the old hands always say to either 3-bet or fold in most situations and not to cold-call a raise. does this apply to no-limit as well?

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Not at all. This advice is good for limit because (1) the amount that you can be rereraised is small -- he can't just blow you out. And (2) the implied odds in limit is a whole lot less, usually.

The significance of #2 is that there are hands which you would play in NL that you wouldn't even play in a limit game -- the sorts of hands with which you can take somebody's whole stack on the right flop. Stu Ungar's favorite hand was JTs. Is this because a mathematical analysis says that this hands wins more than others? -- of course not. It is because this is a hand that can break someone.

You are only going to break someone if they have a very good hand, but you have an even better one. If someone has a big hand, with two big cards in it, then it is very likely that JT is in there on a big draw, or even the nuts already made. When you have KK, it is very hard to lay it down when the flop comes up KQ9.

Of course, in playing these sorts of cards, it helps if you have Stu Ungar's gift for knowing what the other person has. He could smell fear, and would press you hard if you showed it. You could never know that he didn't have the nuts, because he would often play a lot of crazy cards.