A PRE-FLOP CALL
Should our hero call ? It’s actually close. A pocket pair of fours isn’t much of a hand; it’s a speculative hand that needs four to five callers to get a good enough combination of pot odds and implied odds.
If we know that we won’t be raised by the button or one of the blinds, then this is a pretty clear call.
If we estimate that the chances are that one of the players still behind us will raise, then a call becomes a little marginal.
All in all the table is fairly passive, we’re in late position, four players have already called,and the blinds will probably play.
This is a good call, but folding wouldn’t be a big mistake. What did our hero do? He called, of course. If he hadn’t, then we wouldn’t have a story.
I would have thought about raising in this situation but only thought about it. You need a little larger pair to raise in this situation with only four sure callers.
In a loose game, you need to look at the poker game in terms of the kind of odds you’re getting. A pocket pair of fours before the flop needs very high odds, probably about 8-1, to justify a raise.
With a pocket pair, the odds of flopping a set are a little more than 7-1. That’s the primary way that a small-or medium-sized pair will win. Of course you can win with these hands in other winning unimproved.
You can even flop a set and still lose also. The smaller your set, the greater the chance that someone will make a higher set.
The larger the pair, the more ways they have to win and the fewer callers you need to justify a raise.
With only four or five callers, you probably shouldn’t raise with less than about a pair of 8s, but I do try to always think about raising, even if it is just to keep reminding myself that a lot of good things can happen when you raise. However, our hero correctly only called.
The Rest of the Pre-flop Action
As soon as our hero calls, the button raises. Oops! We hadn’t counted on that, but both blinds call,all the other callers just call, and no one reraises.
It’s our hero’s turn to act again. Time to think about a raise again. Now there are seven other poker players in the pot, each has already called two bets.
We have that pocket pair of 4s and are a little worse than a 7-1 underdog to flop a set. Should we raise? It’s a close call.
At our first action in the betting, there were not enough active players for a raise, but three more players have shown action.
Whether you should raise now depends somewhat on how badly the players in the pot tend to play in later betting rounds.
With eight callers a raise is almost automatic with a pair of 4s.With a pair of 6s, a raise would be automatic with six callers. I might have raised. I’m not sure.
If raising is a mistake, then it’s not a huge mistake, but just calling isn’t a huge mistake either. Our hero just called. That was probably the right thing to do, but it’s important to at least think about raising.
