Right spots for cold calling

A cold call in poker refers to the situation when a player decides to call an opponent’s raise preflop while playing from a non-blind position. It’s important to note that cold calling should not be your default strategy and should be used more as an exception.

The fact is, at micro stakes, you pay a high rake, and entering a hand by calling rarely proves profitable in the long run. By playing your hand passively, you miss the chance to win the pot immediately preflop without paying a rake. Therefore, a more optimal strategy is considered aggressive play, involving either a 3-bet or a fold.

However, there are situations where a cold call may be the best decision. In this article, we will look at key factors that help you decide whether cold calling is appropriate in a particular hand.

Table of Contents:

- Starting Hands

- Position

- Opponent Type

- A Fish on the Blinds

Starting Hands

Cold calling is reasonable with hands that are not strong enough for a 3-bet but still have good potential to connect on the flop and win a big pot against strong hands.

The best candidates for a cold call are pocket pairs and suited connectors. With pocket pairs, your goal is to hit a set, and with suited connectors, you’re hoping to catch a draw on the flop and then complete a straight or flush on the turn or river. These hands have high potential, even if your opponent has raised with a narrow range.

In the preflop matrix, I selected the following hands, which I often consider for cold calling:

Then I filtered hands in Hand2Note 4 reports, where I called an open raise with these hands, while sitting in MP, CO, or BTN positions at a 6-max table:

As we can see, the Action Profit metric is positive, and cold calling with this range on average brings me 0.6 big blinds per hand.

At the same time, it’s not advisable to call raises with offsuit non-pair hands. These hands less frequently connect with strong combinations or draws on the flop, and the risk of being dominated by an opponent’s strong hand increases. Hands like KJo or ATo can lead to significant losses, especially if the opponent continues aggression on later streets.

Position

Position is a critical aspect when playing a hand with a cold call. Postflop, the initiative and range advantage will be on the side of the opponent who made the preflop open raise.

Your perceived range after cold calling will be capped, meaning it won’t include premium hands like AA, KK, QQ, or AK, as you would likely 3-bet with those hands preflop.

To offset the drawbacks of playing a capped range, you need to have a positional advantage.

The best situations for cold calling occur when you are on the Button, where you will have a guaranteed positional advantage over your opponents postflop. Being in position allows you to better realize the potential of your hands by giving you more maneuverability during the hand.

In the multi-player reports in Hand2Note 4 I selected the best players from my database who, over at least 1,000 hands, showed an expected win rate of no less than 5 bb/100.

I then modeled a scenario where these players called an open raise from an Early Position player:

In the “Positions” report, we see that the highest win rate from cold calling was demonstrated specifically on the Button.

Opponent Type

Understanding your opponent’s playing style is crucial when deciding whether to cold call. Different types of opponents favor different hand strategies.

For example, cold calling with a pocket pair is justified if you’re up against an aggressive opponent who frequently makes continuation bets postflop.

In this situation, if you hit a set, the aggressive opponent will likely continue building the pot, allowing you to maximize profit with your strong hand.

Conversely, when calling with a suited connector, it’s better to face passive and predictable opponents who rarely c-bet and tend to check when they don’t have a strong hand.

Such opponents give you the opportunity to cheaply build strong hands and successfully bluff.

We were dealt 98 suited on the Button, and before us, a regular player in Middle Position opened with a raise. Our hand is suitable for a bluff 3-bet; however, in the Hand2Note 4 HUD, we see that our opponent folds to 3-bets only 42% of the time.

On the other hand, as a preflop aggressor out of position, this player rarely continues pressure on the flop, with a continuation bet frequency of just 30%.

Based on these statistics, a good decision would be to cold call. On the flop, the opponent will often check, allowing us to fully control the hand thanks to our positional advantage.

A Fish on the Blinds

Another factor that makes cold calling attractive is the presence of a fish in the blinds. Fish often defend their blinds passively, calling raises with many weak hands.

When a fish is sitting behind you, the likelihood of ending up in a multiway pot on the flop increases. This is beneficial for you for two reasons.

First, if you hit a nut hand, you’re more likely to get paid off, as the chance that one of your opponents holds a strong hand is higher in a multiway pot than in a heads-up situation.

Additionally, fish tend to call down even with weak hands, giving you opportunities to maximize your winnings in such scenarios.

Second, the initial raiser, being in a “sandwich” situation between you and the fish, is forced to play more cautiously and make fewer continuation bets.

In multi-player reports, I took the same sample as in the previous example and filtered situations where regular players made a continuation bet in heads-up pots:

The report shows that their c-betting frequency is relatively high at 61%. Now, let’s change the filter to indicate that three players were involved in the pot:

We can see that against two opponents, their continuation bet frequency decreases to 46%. Thus, in multiway pots, you’ll face less pressure on the flop, which works in your favor.

Effective cold calling on the preflop requires consideration of multiple factors and the ability to adapt to your opponents’ playstyles.

By using Hand2Note 4, you can analyze your opponents’ stats, tendencies, and weaknesses. This will help you refine your strategies and find more profitable cold calling opportunities, ultimately increasing your winnings in the long run.