Cold-calling
By: JON DON

I'd say it is a mistake, and it usually indicates a conceptual error, but it is often not large in magnitude.

One common conceptual error is failing to recognize that a reprise may be better. A reraise actually allows you to work with the initial raiser to knock out the blinds and limpers, or at least to give them unattractive odds. In limit, a single raise does not protect a good hand from many mediocre hands that are getting a 50% discount. Reraising increases your share of the dead money in the pot, and may be appropriate when you are behind the range of the initial raiser.

In practice, many casual players cold-call because they don't care about the raise. They usually have a hand that would be better to fold. They have some chances, but those are worth a bit less than 2 small bets.

Common examples of when it may be right to be the first cold-caller in early or middle position are when you have suited KQ, AQ, and AJ, and can expect the pot to be multiway if you cold-call. These suited hands do not do well (or ar just ok) after isolating an early position raiser, but they are quite good in multiway pots.

Calling a raise from the small blind is similar to cold-calling. Usually, reraising or folding is better.

  Quote:

In no limit hold'em, flat calling a preflop raise is much more acceptable. The short version of why is that you can expect to win considerably more after the flop when you hit a big hand (or in some cases if you slow play your big hand preflop).

It's not just a trap or for speculative hands. Reraising reopens the action for the raiser. It's not a big deal if someone caps in limit after you 3-bet. It's just one small bet, and you get a lot of information for that. It can be a disaster to let someone push in NL.

I don't think the term cold-call should be used in NL to refer to calling a preflop raise. Flat-call, smooth-call, and just plain call can be used instead.

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