allaboutpoker

I’m going to use the limit hold’em hand in this example in two blogs, to illustrate two different concepts, raising for value, and calling on the river.  Today we’ll do calling on the river.

A basic concept that’s critically important in poker is calling on the river.  By the time you have gotten that far in a game like hold’em or stud, where the pot is often large or very large, you usually can’t fold to a river bet unless you are very certain to be beaten.  This is because the chance of your having the best hand does not need to be very large in order to justify calling based on the pot odds.  Let’s take a hold’em example to show what I mean…

You hold KsQs and call a raise in the BB after multiple players call.  Six players take the flop, which is Kd 2s 4s.

(note there are now 12 small bets in the pot)

The preflop raiser is very solid.  You bet and another player calls, then the preflop raiser raises again.  Two players call the raise, you reraise, get called again, and the raiser caps it.  Both other players call, you call, five players left.

(note there are now 27 small bets in the pot)

The turn comes the 2h.  You check, the preflop raiser bets once more.  The other two opponents call, you call, the last player folds, four players.

(note there are now 35 small bets in the pot)

The river is the Ad.  You check, and your opponent bets.   The other two players fold.

You have missed the flush.  You flopped top pair, but at this point your opponent has played his hand like he can beat top pair, queen kicker.  The ace on the river is not the card you wanted to see, not by a longshot.  It doesn’t look good, but if you ever consider folding here, you’re nuts.   You’re getting 18:1 on your bet, which means you need about a six percent chance of having the best hand to break even on your call.  Folding would be insane!  All you need is one such pot like this one and you’ll understand how great it feels to make a terrific call on a large pot like this one.  However, if you fold here, then your opponent turns up something like KJ, you’re going to hate yourself!

Just because it appears you are beaten does not make it correct to fold.  You need to figure your chances of being beat versus the pot odds you’re getting if you call, and then make your decision.  When the pot is very large, you need a very small chance of winning to make calling the right play.  Remember, calling when you’re beat here costs you one bet, but folding the best hand would cost you 18 bets!  These “peace of mind calls” are vitally important.

Next blog will show another aspect of this hand, raising for value.

PokerGuru

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