‘HERO CALL’ warning

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2011 (5166 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Have you ever heard the term “hero call?” Have you ever had someone make a hero call against you? You might be surprised when they do, but if you look carefully, maybe their call wasn’t so tough after all.

A hero call is when a player calls a bet with a very weak hand — so weak that the only thing they could be certain of beating is a bluff.

When should you make a hero call? Well, if you begin to call people with a weak hand whenever you feel the urge to make a hero call, you might find your bankroll in someone else’s bank account.

At some point, if you play any amount of poker, and you aren’t the tightest player in the world, you will make a hero call. There is definitely nothing wrong with this (and I actually encourage it) as long as you have some solid reasoning behind your actions.

Since poker is a game of calculated risk with an element of luck in every hand dealt, we must understand the type of opponents we are playing against in order to make a hero call.

First and foremost, the absolute worst player to try this against is the rock at the table. If you know that a player never bluffs, why would you think your hero call would ever win you the pot?

Another type of player you should avoid making a hero call against is someone who is able to bet with any type of hand: the nuts… air… thin value. In my opinion, these are the best type of no-limit hold ’em players out there; they’re the ones who really keep you guessing on the strength of their hand. In the end, there are just too many possible hands they could be betting on, so you might want to pick another opponent to try this against.

The players this will be the most successful against are players who have a very polarized hand range — basically either the nuts or air.

Many players will bet the nuts and will bet with air but are content at seeing a cheap showdown with hands that have showdown value. The problem with this is that you will lose an extreme amount of value in your medium-strength hands. And if your opponents know you will bet every street with the nuts and also with air but check down your medium-strength hands, you will become fairly predictable to play against.

The next time you are thinking about making a hero call, take these things into consideration. Is this player capable of making a move? Is he ever able to bet for thin value on a marginal hand? If you can’t come up with the right answers to your questions, you might just want to save your hero call for another time. A hero call is great for your ego when it works, but it can also put you on massive tilt when it doesn’t.

For anyone interested you can follow me on twitter @DontCryRebuy