Learning to Cold Call

[mtdoak]

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Sure there is. Cold call when you want to encourage a big, multiway pot. That is all.

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And cold-call with hands that have big impiled odds and are easy to play post-flop againsts multiple opponents. (read: medium pairs)

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Also, you should cold call the the PFR'r is a little beeotch and needs to be beat down. Quality hands need not apply.

[RunDownHouse]

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Against a tight Preflopraiser, KQo is clearly a Fold. If he raises looser, I would 3-bet. When you just cold call, you give the Blinds the right pot odds to enter, and this can be a desaster for your hand.

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You're going to have to define your terms a little bit before just letting a statement like that stand.

[SparkyDog]

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If you don't know how to coldcall you aren't missing much.

That said, I do it once in a while. The best time to coldcall is when there are already many players in the pot. Ideally you would have an early raiser and several previous coldcallers. That would be a good spot to call with hands like 55, QJs, and A9s.

Less good but OK is when the raiser is directly in front of you with limpers in front of him. Now a 3-bet has more appeal because it could drive some of the limpers out by confronting them with two bets. Also you want to play tighter because your position with respect to the PFR is bad. You are probably going to have to act second on the flop after PFR bets.

The actual hand is unfortunately an idealized example of what not to do:

1. You are second in the pot. I suggest that you never be the first person to call an open-raise unless you have blind money in the pot.

2. You have offsuit cards. That's not a hand that's going to win many big pots. Coldcalling is largely about seeing a cheap flop and hitting a home run.

3. You are cutoff and should be trying to gain the button. Calling makes more sense when you already are the button.

You should fold the flop. You have no diamond and your overcards are pretty bad here.

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Great post. Only things I have to say is lately I've been cold calling with the raiser directly on my right with hands like 66, 77, etc. that tend to be in a situation where you'd really like to protect your hand fairly frequently, but also be able to cut loose of the hand early if the flop comes bad.

Another instance is if my hand really doesn't have that much equity once it's 3-handed, but can profitable see a flop. Suited aces and suited connectors are the main hands that fall into this category. However this is best in position, when you can raise the early contiuation bet to juice the pot/free card when you flop a good draw.

[Ares]

Okay, sorry. Let's consider he is tight and raises with about 15% of his hands in this position (probably not enough I know). Then your equity is ca. 46%. This is not enough to reraise. If you just cold call, the big blind gets 1:5 pot odds. That gives him the opportunity to call with a broad range of hands.

[DiamondDave]

Coldcalling an UTG raiser in MP with offsuit face cards is all bad. Coldcalling the button from the SB with these hands is reasonable, as is coldcalling the CO from the button. Many people suggest 3betting in these spots, but you don't really want to commit to a showdown with king high. So call and play the flop.