Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

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say a tight player opens in EP, and you hold QQ. If you reraise, he's probably going to play perfectly, meaning he'll fold every worst hand but never any better hands.

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This seems so simple when I read it as typed, but it is a difficult concept to understand. This flies right over the heads of many, many people. Its often hard to be rational and think like this, especially late in a tournament, when you see QQ with an early position raiser. Its kind of like "ZOMG, a raise in front of me I have Queens and 20 BBs ALLLLL IINNN time final table yes!" When doing this you forget about the reads you have on him and things like you mention about making him play perfectly. In other words, well done sir.

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

Somebody said here that they'd rather re-raise out of the blinds than in position. Why? Then you get to play an inflated pot out of position. This sucks above all.

Think about what you hate more: getting re-raised by a thinking player or called by a thinking player pre-flop. I love to just call in position, because your opponents know that you can have anything and have a really tough time playing against your hand that they know nothing about while you know much about their hand (why you should be cold calling in the first place).

I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] the cold call.

Devo

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

Not coldcalling with 30-50bb stacks is usually fine, but making a rule against it is silly. There are some times when reraising sucks and folding sucks more given various situations so calling is the only logical play.

I think though that making rules against making certain plays for the sake of obeying the rule that you have set is stupid. If you think that cold calling QJs or 66 to a raise with 30bbs is -EV then you should fold, otherwise call.

Maverick, the reason why people prefer 3betting OOP than IP is because we want to negate our positional disadvantage by reraising and trying to end the hand there, and it is the assumption before you do this that reraising is +EV in a vaccum.

In 6max cash games I will do a good amount of reraising and cold-calling, but it's very situational. I'm less likely to reraise various hands if there are weak players left to act after an opening raise. 3betting shuts them out of the pot, so calling is best typically there.

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

FWIW, I coldcall ALLLL the time. It's a little less effective online because people squeeze too much, but that's only more reason to coldcall with the nuts.

Especially from the BB. Having a rule to never take advantage of sick pot odds late in a tournament is pretty brutal.

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

I sometimes play without ever folding. It can really bring your game to new places.

Also, coldcalling is the most fun thing in poker. Why even play poker if you're not allowed to just call? It's so sad.

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

cold calling is fun because it means u can play postflop

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

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Especially from the BB. Having a rule to never take advantage of sick pot odds late in a tournament is pretty brutal.

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this is good

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

The reason I like to 3 bet out of the blinds with stronger hands is I'd rather put more in the pot when my hand is strong. When I have position I have the advantage of position that is harder to exploit in an already inflated pot. Decisions are much easier in larger pots therefore position is less important.

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

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Especially from the BB. Having a rule to never take advantage of sick pot odds late in a tournament is pretty brutal.

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Wow, I usually agree with everything zeejustin says. I almost never flat out of position though, especially not to a single raise and almost never < 30 BBs deep. Do you mean flatting a single raise oop or a raise and multiple callers? Also what kind of stacks do you need to be flat calling alot, especially out of position?

Re: Never coldcall (theorish)
 

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Especially from the BB. Having a rule to never take advantage of sick pot odds late in a tournament is pretty brutal.

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Wow, I usually agree with everything zeejustin says. I almost never flat out of position though, especially not to a single raise and almost never < 30 BBs deep. Do you mean flatting a single raise oop or a raise and multiple callers? Also what kind of stacks do you need to be flat calling alot, especially out of position?

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Say you are in the BB and someone raises to 2.5xBB in late position. With no ante, you are getting 2.7-1 pot odds; with 1xBB in ante, you are getting 3.3-1 pot odds; with 1.5xBB in ante, you getting 3.7-1 pot odds. If the late position raiser probably has any top 30% hand, I don't see why you can't call loosely.

I don't see how the positional disadvantage overrides pot odds. Also, if the money is fairly shallow, you can checkraise allin on the flop. In general, I don't see position as being as important with shallow money.

I posted about this in response to Bond's post saying you should call tight in the blinds OOP.