What Is a Call in Poker?

Matthew Gover
Senior Author
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Poker follows an orderly structure requiring players to defer and wait for their turn. It is one characteristic that makes poker appealing and rewarding for patient and strategic players. New players may have a hard time winning against more experienced opponents, but a good knowledge of the game and its terms would help you tremendously. Throughout this piece, I will detail the ins and out of making a call in poker.

What Is a Call?

Poker starts like most card games, with the dealer doling out cards to each player. In most full-ring games with up to nine players, the small blind and big blind contribute chips to the hand before every other player has the opportunity to get involved. Every other player after the blinds gets the opportunity to call, raise, or fold, depending on the cards they have as well as the position they are placed on the table a player will decide to choose one of these three options.

When you make the decision to call, you are essentially matching the previous player’s wager. When you call in poker, it is the same as saying you are willing to continue with the hand but you don’t have any interest in increasing the pot yet. The reasons for your decision to call could mean you are looking to improve your hand or that your hand is so strong that you don't want to scare other players away with a big raise.

When to Call in Poker

Poker requires more strategy than other table games, and the best players will call for various reasons. If you feel you are playing against a highly skilled player you will want to mix up the times you call and raise because these opponents will read your game. Otherwise, in a normal setting, it is best to adopt a simple strategy, as amateur players are more focused on their own game and won't be observing your playing patterns.

Hiding a Strong Hand

When you have an extremely strong winning hand, it is best not to call attention until the River or when the other players fold. Raising your bet indicates great strength, and if you feel that you have a monster, you obviously want to make as much money as possible from the hand. However, please pay great attention to the board in front of you. If you have a three-of-a-kind, for example, consider why the other players are continuing. Perhaps they are looking to complete a straight or flush draw. 

If there are several players and the board is looking dangerous a call might be a bad option as the chances of one of these players hitting the card they are after is much higher than if you were playing against one player on a board that looks very safe for your hand.

Calling a Bluff

Every good poker player has to have the ability to bluff. A Bluff is generally a strategy for scaring timid or inexperienced players. The challenge with playing against a bluff is that you are not always sure they are bluffing. Even the most experienced players sometimes misread their opponent and make poor choices. In these cases, you will need to really analyze the reasons why one player might decide to bluff in a certain spot. They might be portraying to you that they have a flush, or it could be a newcomer not recognizing that it is not a good time to bluff.

The best option when playing against a bluff is to call their bluff. Some players choose to raise the bet as a scare tactic, but it does not always work for them. Even if you were wrong about the bluff, your loss would not be as great as it would be if you had raised it.

Looking to Make a Strong Hand

This is the most common reason for calling. These spots are often played very badly by amateur poker players who see a chance to hit a flush or straight draw and cannot help but continue. If you have a flush draw with two cards left the chances of you hitting your card is 35%. Therefore if 100 chips were in the middle and someone bet 100 chips on top, you should fold. This is because you are receiving 50% pot odds, not 35%. This implies that even if you get lucky and hit your card, it is not a strategy with long-term equity.

Call When the Time is Right

Poker and discipline go together so well. The movies might make the game look super cool, but they leave out the hours a player can wait for a golden opportunity to pounce. Ultimately poker is a numbers game and all decisions made should follow some numerical logic. Call when the odds are in your favor while considering the style of the players at your table.

Matthew Gover

Matthew Gover

Contributor & UK Market Expert

16 Articles
Based in the UK and has been working in the iGaming market for quite some time. His contributions bring in-depth knowledge to our articles and provide players with all the information they need to know before embarking on their online casino journey.
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