Call with a good draw or a medium strength hand.
Although taking a raise-or-fold tactic would normally be the best way to play holdem poker, I some scenarios it could be correct to call a bet from your right.
Good Draw
It would often be best just to call when the flop would turn out a good draw at a complete poker hand. A classic example would be when you were holding a hand like a nine and seven suited, and the flop was a three, a six and a ten with two of your suit.
You would have twelve outs, of which nine would make a flush, so you wouldn’t count it twice.) You would be close to even money to end this poker hand by the river.
Thus, should you be pushing and showing with this big draw? On average, you should not. One key cause for this would be that your raise could eradicate other poker players. With this kind of drawing hand, you would prefer to have as many rivals as possible, since one of them could build up a hand that would be second-best to yours, and would add a lot of chips to your stack.
You wouldn’t be able to raise out anyone holding a better flush draw anyway, as anyone with this hand would call your raise. The price you would get from the pot would be better if would be up against several poker rivals, so you shouldn’t raise with your draw if you were to feel it would be likely to taper the field.
Another aspect to reflect on would be that the initial bettor would have you beat at this point. Certainly, you would be likely to draw out on him, but you possibly wouldn’t wind up with the best poker hand if you wouldn’t make your straight or flush. You would not want to raise and cut the field down to you and the best hand. Instead, you should leave the field in and give yourself a good price on your big draw. You would win more money when you would hit your poker hand, and lose less when you would miss.
Medium-Strength Hand
Playing an average strength poker hand would be somewhat riskier. With a hand such as middle pair, or top pair-weak kicker, you would often not be certain whether you were holding the best hand when the poker player to your right would bet. While making a raise could succeed in defending your hand, you wouldn’t always want to commit a lot of chips at this point. Ideally, you would like more information about where your hand would stand before getting too heavily involved.
If you were uncertain of whether to call or raise with your poker hand, here would be a good rule to follow: Tending to call when it would be difficult for your rivals to outdraw you, and would be more likely to raise (or fold) when your hand would be weak. Two examples will demonstrate this point.
EXAMPLE 1
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In example one, it would be tougher for a rival to outdraw you, so there would be less danger in just calling a bet on the flop. If your ace would be the best hand, it would probably hold up with this board, whether there would be three, or four poker players in the pot.
However, in example two, you would be in a tricky spot if the poker player to your right were to bet, you would be next, and a few poker players were yet to act behind you. This would be a raise-or-fold situation for you.
EXAMPLE 2
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A call would make it easy for poker players behind you to stay in with hands like an ace and king or a king and queen, which would be drawing quite live against you. And, for one bet, they probably would call, but you could fold when faced with calling a raise.
There would be one further advantage to raising with the two sevens here. Your raise would scream out ‘I have a jack!’ and this would possibly cause a few hands to hold that would have you beat – a pair of eights, a pair of nines, and a pair of tens. Anytime you could raise and persuade a better hand to fold, you would have earned yourself a pot. Over time, the poker players who would be competent at making these sorts of plays would be the ones winning the money at holdem poker.
Still, you would have to exercise some caution here. If you would be familiar with the play of bettor, and would know that he was a very solid poker player, it would be likely that you would be behind in this situation. You wouldn’t need to raise with your two sevens every time this situation were to arise. Against solid conflict, a fold would often be the best play.