Common Poker Mistakes: Calling

Almost without exception, every beginner will go through a phase of calling too much during games of poker. Many players will never lose this habit and will never take their game to the next level. In this series of articles we will be focusing on Texas Holdem, although much of the information could equally be applied to other poker variations.

Calling too much is probably what separates beginners from intermediate and advanced poker players. If you watch any game, for any length of time you’ll see players at a showdown with pathetic hands. It’s easy to wonder why that player is still in the hand especially when they are so easily beaten time after time.

Probably, one of the most overplayed hands is an Ace with a low kicker. You’ll frequently see beginners showing Ace high and being beaten by a low pair. The mistake these players are making (and what is keeping them from progressing to the next level of play) is that they are overly optimistic about their hand. They stay in the game pre-flop just to see what happens on the flop. The flop comes and gives them no help, so they call bets on the turn and river just to see what cards come along. Maybe they will catch two running Aces to give them trip Aces! Of course in reality, they will probably catch nothing and will have wasted a series of call bets only to give the pot away to a low, but better hand.

In Holdem, it is important to have a game plan. Most hands should be thrown away before the flop to save having to call the blinds. If the hand is good enough to take to the flop, it should be pretty obvious what to do with it on the flop. If you hold J 6 and the flop comes K 9 6, you have lowest pair. Anyone with a King or Nine has you beaten at this point, so if some aggressive betting starts to take place you probably want to get out of the hand. Waiting in to catch a Jack or another six is rather futile since there are only three potential Jacks and two potential sixes left in the deck. So the chance of this hand improving is 5 in 47 (47 is the number of unseen cards left in the deck). With two cards to come you might have slightly better than a 1 in 5 chance of hitting a good hand, and none of this takes into account that other players may already have you beaten by a pocket pair or a pair with one of the two over cards on the board. If you hold A 4 and the flop comes rainbow K Q 7, should you continue to stay in the hand you are really going to need an Ace to have a reasonable chance of winning. There is a very slim chance of getting a straight, and even then there are three other Aces out there that one of your opponents may hold. If you continue to play to the end of this hand you have very poor odds of winning such a hand. But it is surprising just how many beginners see that Ace and cannot help putting more bets into the pot, just to see what happens at the end. Over time this kind of play will only lead to disappointment.

So to vastly improve your game, evaluate the strength of your starting hand very seriously before electing to play. Once you see the flop, if you have nothing and people are betting into you, get out of the hand and don’t rely on the turn and river to miraculously change your hand into a winner, because most of the time it won’t. What separates the 'men from the boys' in poker is the ability to lay down a monster hand when you know you are beaten.

In Holdem you either want to have a hand that has a good potential to improve (a good drawing hand) where lots of cards could bring you a win (such as an open ended straight or four cards to a flush) or a hand that is already strong. Why bet on a long shot over and over again? Sometimes you’ll catch the cards, but over time you will always be the loser. If you want to play a fun game with long odds, learn to play roulette.