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I've been wondering this for a while now, and today I turned on the tv to see the poker superstars with Howard Lederer commentating. Just about every hand he is saying that the player has just about the right price to make the call. So my question is, how do you know if you are getting the right price to make a call preflop?
Thanks.
-aytopper
When making a preflop call you first have to decide, at worst how much of an underdog you will be if your opponent(s) has a better hand. Ex. If you could be, at worst a 2-1 dog and you are being asked to call 1/3 or less of the pot pre flop, you should call, otherwise you should fold.
(P.S. I pulled this ENTIRE reply out of my ass and really have no idea what I'm talking about here. I was just bored.)
Ok there is a better way to answer this. I assume this is a NL question and will answer accordingly. I will also assume these are also all in situations with no subsequent betting. First of all, Lederer can see everyones card and the percentages so he knows exactly the odds. Lets take a simple example. A typical situation would be you holding J10 and knowing for certain your opponent has too larger non matching hole cards. In these spots you can be anywhere from a 2-1 underdog to a 3-2 underdog, or in percentages, 33% and 40% to win the hands, 67% and 60% to lose after all cards are dealt. Let's say the pot had originally $20 in it before the raise and your opponent makes it $20 more to go. You are now forced to call $20 to win $40. 40/20= 2. This means you are laying 2 to 1 to call. Since we know that we believe we are at worse and 2 to 1 underdog we are laying correct odds to call. However, if you opponent were holding any of these hands: AA KK QQ JJ TT AJ AT you would not be laying enough odds to call. If your opponent had a pair smaller than TT or an ace-rag hand you would be in great shape in relation to pot odds since your odds of winning the pot would now be about 5-6. You would still be an underdog but not as big of one.
On Superstars the blind structure is such that players are moving a lot of chips in with weak hands. Don't watch this and believe you are always getting odds to call, typically your opponents will be stronger that what you have seen on SS3
In conclusion, to figure out odds take the amount in the pot and divide it by the amount you have to call. Odds can never be lower than 1/1. To determine what kind of shape you are in you need to study hand vs. hand charts. I think you'll find you're a much smaller underdog with certain hands than you may have originally thought. For example: JTs versus A8o is nearly a 50/50 race. The biggest dog you can be is a hand like A6o versus AA which you would be a 13-1 underdog, I'd suggest staying away from those situations.
Hope I could help
'spenda