Cold call a raise question
 

what are the starting cards that ok to cold call a raise?

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

who is the raiser, what position are you in, how many other callers, these are all factors to consider rather then a strict hand chart

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

As a REAL general rule of thumb. IF you are going to cold call a raise your cards have to be BETTER then what you would need to raise the hand.

I won't call a riase with anything unsuited unless I have AK

Suited I'll go down to AQ but it's pretty table independent.

Take your minumin raising hand and make it 2 hands better and there ya go!


Grinders Warehouse BLOG Edition

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

Depends on position and the action before you. SSH suggests that if you are cold-calling a raise more often than 1/550 hands, you're doing it too much.

Thus, the best rule of thumb is to *never* cold call a raise. 3-bet or fold. Reraising or folding that 1/550 hand where a cold call is technically correct is a tiny error. Cold calling more frequently is a big error.

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

I won't call a riase with anything unsuited unless I have AK

Suited I'll go down to AQ but it's pretty table independent.


In both these examples, cold-calling is wrong. You should be 3-betting the AK 99.9% of the time, and only cold-calling with the AQs in position *and* with callers between you and the raiser (I even cringe at that).

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

[ QUOTE ]
Thus, the best rule of thumb is to *never* cold call a raise. 3-bet or fold. Reraising or folding that 1/550 hand where a cold call is technically correct is a tiny error. Cold calling more frequently is a big error.

[/ QUOTE ]

This might be the single most useful thing a beginning player can learn.

T

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

As a general rule of thumb, I only cold call with Sklansky's group 2 or better hands.

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

for speculative, multiway hands like strong suited neighbors and middle pocket pairs, you need to have at least several existing cold callers, or be absolutely certain that there will be weak callers behind you in order to justify the odds of hitting. like other posters said, the situations where this would occur would be extremely rare, and even if it came up, it would never be completely "wrong" to chuck it anyway.

if you do have a legitimate Group 1 holding (or possible Group 2 if the raiser is loose), especially a "one-way" hand like AKo, the only choice is to reraise and isolate the player to your right, buy yourself late position heads-up. you need to have the higher EV cards preflop at least 50% of the time against the raiser going in, for this play to be profitable in the long run.

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

so cold calling a raise, i should only re-raise with AA-TT,AKs-AJs, KQs, AK and fold everything else in any position.

because in Getting Started in Hold'em book by Mason it says to do that if there a raise in front? is that the same thing as cold calling a Raise?

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

[ QUOTE ]
so cold calling a raise, i should only re-raise with AA-TT,AKs-AJs, KQs, AK and fold everything else in any position.
because in Getting Started in Hold'em book by Mason it says to do that if there a raise in front? is that the same thing as cold calling a Raise?

[/ QUOTE ]
cold-calling and re-raising are NOT the same thing. for beginners, you should probably not play ANY raised hands preflop with anything except AA, KK, QQ, AKs and AKo (with even QQ and AKo borderline). anything lower than that, you will probably not play well enough postflop to make them +EV.

when in doubt, tend to lean towards playing tighter rather than looser. betting too many weaker hands is the primary bankroll eater of new poker players.

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

i am so confused on cold calling a raise.


is cold calling a raise the same thing as a raise in front?

if so should i follow what it says to do if there a raise in front?

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

[ QUOTE ]
i am so confused on cold calling a raise.

is cold calling a raise the same thing as a raise in front?


[/ QUOTE ]

A cold call is, by definition, calling more than a single bet.

Scenario 1:
Preflop, you're in late position. A player limps, next player raises, everyone folds to you. It's now two bets to you and if you call those two bets, that's a cold call. There is almost no situation where you should cold call here - either raise or fold.

Scenario 2:
Preflop, you're in late position. A player limps, folds around to you and you limp. Next player behind you raises. It comes back to you but you only have to call a single bet. This is not a cold call, and you should almost always make the call.

Does that make it more clear?

Regards,

T

Re: Cold call a raise question
 

don't worry - we all started as beginners at one point.

here's how it works. a guy in front of you raises preflop, making it double the big blind. so if you are play $1/2 limit hold em, a preflop raise is $2 (since the big blind is $1).

so now you have to bet at least $2 in order to see the flop, or fold. "cold-calling" the raise means you just call the minimum $2. the reason this is discouraged is because it still encourages players with weaker hands to stay in as well for the minimum raise, and get decent pot odds to out draw both you and the raiser with crap speculative hands like any two suited cards, a low pocket pair, or any two unsuited high cards ten or better. It also keeps the initial raiser on the offensive and he will bet into you after the flop and you will not be able to put a read on what he actually has.

however, you also have to option to RE-RAISE (aka 3-bet), which is to increase the betting to $3. this accomplishes two things: a) it puts the initial raiser on defensive and forces him into a weaker early position for the rest of the hand, and b) it discourages soft players to the left of you to come in with aforementioned weaker drawing hands. Ideally you want to have a situation where you are heads-up with the initial raiser, and also get to act last on each street.

so basically the strategy for when to play with "a raise in front" is to only play hands that can potentially beat the initial raiser. otherwise, folding is probably the best idea if you're still new to the game. as you gain more experience, you will find certain situations when you can stay in with lesser hands justified by pot odds, and be more speculative when you have a mathematical advantage.