Thursday, June 11, 2009

Picking spots for hero calling

I'm a calling station, I know.... But when I decide to make a hero call I try to also have some reasons other than I think this guy has air and I have a pair so I call. These last couple of days I have seen people making hero calls against me that I think are kind of bad. Lets see a couple of examples:

Ok on the turn there are a ton of draws so I could be semi bluffing quite a bit, however I also just limped so I could have a lot of two pair in my range and I'm in position so the river is gonna be tough to play with QQ. Another thing is that my raise was pretty big and it looked like I want to put all my money deep. Not the best pot to risk that much to see if I'm bluffing.

Here is another one:

In this one I've been Ck/raising quite a bit so of course I'm doing it for value, the bad thing is that again there are a ton of bad turn cards I could bluff If I'm behind, and still have a bunch of outs against his Ace high (Without counting the times I'm bluffing with the best hand).

In both these examples, they are risking a lot of their stack to see if I was bluffing and if I was they wouldn't gain that much information, but still give me info about how they think about the game. In hand #1 he is telling me that he is capable of semibluffing the turn with draws and he can make calls deep if my range for value is small. In hand #2 He just told me that he is going to float my Ck/raises and still call me light when scarecard comes so I can valuebet him pretty thin.

Ok, now lets see one hero call I made yesterday:

There are a couple of things with this hand. First lets examine preflop. Of course 23s is a horrible hand to defend with and I would fold it over 90% of the time. However from time to time I decide to make a loose peel to give the impresion that my range is wider than what really is.

On the flop I have a pair so thats the nuts in HU, but still want to play it passively to try get to showdown so that he thinks that I will call with any suited connector and when I ck/raise flops I can have more two pairs in my range on coordinated boards. Also I can't fold a pair.
So anyway on the turn I picked up a draw so I call again, putting him in a flushdraw with two overs and if he had an overpair I could still improve (Again he may give up on river and let me get to showdown). On the river I won't talk about his range, cause my call is probably slightly -EV, but I do think that by showing my hand I can gain more in the match later on. Lets analyze why.

First, as I say is that he gets to see my calling range and may think I'm calling with any suited connector. When he wins, a couple of things may get in his head. For example, he is gonna think that I'm a calling station and might stop him from bluffing in future spots, so he can value bet me thinly and I can make some big bluffs in later streets when we get deeper. Also when he sees how light I'm calling he is thinking that I'm a donk/bad player and thus will keep playing me (The fact that he thinks I'm a fish is good and may trigger some tilt if I win my money back).

In terms of momentum he was ahead in that match so when he wins not much will change (Other than I looked like a donk), but If I win now the momentum is on my side and a bunch of good things can happen. Psychologically he is still going to think that I'm a fish and a calling station with a wide calling range in the big blind so we may even play more tables, but more importantly he could start getting tilted and frustrated cause I can't fold a friking pair and how is possible this fish still have money online?, plus now I have him covered. He knows he can't bluff me that easily and I can represent more hands like flushes and straight cause he saw that particular hand.

On that call I'm only risking 40big blinds instead of the +100bb in the other example, and I'm also sending the message that just cause I'm checking doesn't mean I will fold. Also a line when there is a raise and then more bets is more consistent with a big hand, than a line of bet bet bet from someone who just doesn't value bet that thinly. So If I had to pick a spot to make a light calldown, I prefer to have more than one reason to do it.

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