Coldcalling first in

[elindauer]

Hi SA125,

Here are a few quick thoughts on this topic.

First, it's clear that with the weakest hands you hold, reraising makes more sense than calling. This is simply because you don't really want other people to play against your vulnerable holding, and you want to represent a stronger hand than you have to get the other guy to fold asap.

Two situations can develop where calling does make sense though.

The first that occurs to me is when you in fact are very strong and don't want to telegraph your strength. Say UTG raises and you are next with AA. Do you really want to shut out the field with a 3-bet? Probably not.

The second is when you have a pretty strong hand, and find yourself against a tight raiser but with lots of loose opponents behind you. Again, say the raise is from UTG, and you hold AKs. OK, you can 3-bet and get it heads up, but your equity isn't that great. Why not coldcall and let the loose bad players who will now call 2 cold with XXs and Ax into the hand? I find many players will call raises with unbelievably weak holdings, but very few will call 3 cold with anything near that same range.


So yes, 77 and AJs, you probably want to 3-bet if you choose to play. Other, stronger hands though, especially if the raiser is tight and the players behind you are very loose, you may want to call.


-eric