One strategy many poker players may not be totally familiar with is cold calling. In a nutshell, cold calling is when a call after at least two actions have been made including a raise, before your turn to fold, raise or bet. For example, if one player bets, another player raises, and you call, this would be considered cold calling. For a player to bet in the first place is indicative they think they have a good hand and for someone to raise they think it is even better. To cold call is to bet in this round but it is not a time for a marginal maybe type hand and certainly not a time to bluff.
A great example is when you’re in the middle position of the table with an unsuited king and queen and an early postion player raises. Do you call in this case. There are several scenarios that can take out some risk. How has the player been playing. Check out their chip stack as well as your own. In general if they have been doing well they might continue to do so and it would be good to fold. If it is a player who goes all-in all the time and loses frequently or a loose player, it might be a good time to bet. You might have a hunch it will work. Again this is another time to bet as well. And if you have been doing well it might be a great time to bet as well.
Some might consider the king queen to be a good enough starting hand to cold call a raise with, though many poker players will pass on this one round even with a good position. This is the gist of poker though and sometimes you will win and other times you will lose. This is a great way for the raiser to accumulate chips as well. Since many players will fold when there is a raise. Have you ever seen a raiser who only has a pair of twos. But they add to their chip stack anyway.
If you make the call anyway, you maybe put into a difficult post-flop position. For example, let’s say that the flop was ace, queen, ten unsuited, which isn’t bad for you because you paired the queen with a king for a kicker. However, you also have to deal with the possibility that your opponent has ace king , and they now have a straight. Of course, they could have pocket jacks as well, and this will take knowing your fellow players in order to decide if it’s worth calling against any future bets. One strategy is to raise and feel out fellow players. If they re-raise, they might have something. Since sometimes players raise with any pairs as mentioned above, but will fold if they have say a pair of eights. The choice is yours. If you find them re-raising your re-raise then they might have a trump hand. There are time cold calling will work.
There are some scenarios that warrant cold calling. One is your chip stack is adequate and you have a pair, a potential straight or flush. You have to be strong enough to limit yourself here. You never want to chase an ideal hand. Remember, the most likely to win hand is a pair. So, if you have a pair, you’re goal is three of kind. If two suited cards, you’re looking for a flop that delivers and if you have a potential straight, again, you want to see a flop that is a winner. Other wise, your best bet is to fold and not risk more chips. Cold calling can work but it often doesn’t. The bottom line is to be successful cold calling, you need a great hand.