Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 28 May 2009 / Leave a comment

Sometimes in poker, you just simply feel compelled to call in a situation that makes very little logical sense.

Be it a twitch in the way someone throws their chips into the pot, or simply that you are fed up at being run over by a very aggressive player, sometimes you have to make a 'hero' call.

These calls are usually defined as 'hero' calls simply because of the generally irrational nature of them, and that the player making them is attempting to be a hero.

The key problem with hero calling is that there is an incredibly thin line between making the odd, balanced big call, and of turning into a massive calling station.

However, sometimes these calls simply have to be made, just to put a good, aggressive player on guard somewhat, forcing them to slow down. By making occasional hero calls you show that you are more than capable of making very thin calls if the situation warrants it, a point which makes any very aggressive player's life much harder.

The key problem with hero calling is that there is an incredibly thin line between making the odd, balanced big call, and of turning into a massive calling station. Most of the time in poker, big bets and lots of action indicate big hands, and starting to call big river bets in no limit hold'em or Omaha with marginal hands, or every street in limit games with small pairs, can become an extremely dangerous game.

You need to have a very good specific reason in your head to make these type of calls, and just doing them on a whim is usually a recipe for disaster. Mostly you should be looking to make these calls either:

a) To slow a very aggressive player down - at some point you will have to make a stand against these players, and there are some situations where calling with marginal hands that are actually quite good spots to achieve this;
or:

b) Because of a specific read on a player that makes you extremely certain that they are up to something. Be it a timing tell online, or a physical tell live, you usually need some kind of reliable evidence to make very big calls in the face of lots of action.

Think very carefully about exactly why you are calling when looking down the barrel of big action. Curiosity is one of the worst traits in a poker player, and as the old poker saying goes: 'You will go home broke, but you certainly won't go home curious' is perhaps best shown by the subject of hero calling.

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