Hero Calls. Poker Player

Cyrus ‘HighDefinition’ Partow explains how making hero calls can be easy when you narrow your opponent’s hand ?to a precise range

Some of the most beautiful moments in poker are when you have a very strong read on your opponent who makes a large bet that you call with a hand so weak it only beats a stone-cold bluff. We call these ‘hero calls’. In every hand of poker, players are telling a story and making a heroic decision comes from properly understanding your opponent’s story.

I was in a $3/$6 NLHE heads-up game against a very loose-aggressive opponent who I understood to be weak but who fought hard for pots. He didn’t like to fold, especially preflop, defending almost every hand. Moreover, he had shown no signs of being a skilled hand-reader.
With effective stacks of $700 I raised K-J on the button to $24 and my opponent called. The flop came 7c-5s-5d. He quickly led out for $48 – the full pot. I decided to call. I did this because I was sure he wouldn’t lead out with a five as he had been tricky with all his previous monster hands. Therefore, I put him on a range consisting of any seven, straight draws like 9-8, 8-6, 6-4 and 4-3, and random bluffs that had no piece of the flop.

The pot was $144 going into the turn – the Qd – which made a backdoor flush draw possible. My opponent checked. At this point I still believed that my read on the flop was correct. Therefore, I was obligated to bet the turn, both to get him to fold his complete bluffs and to get value from (or make him fold) his draws. My float on the flop is bad if I don’t bet here.

I bet $99 and after a few seconds he called. I was then positive that he couldn’t have a five. His range was mostly sevens, but straight draws were still possible, as were a few backdoor flush draws, some random Queens and perhaps a hand like 8-8 or 9-9.

River Raid

The river was an offsuit deuce. I was hoping to check behind in case he had a missed draw, but I didn’t get a chance to execute this plan because my opponent suddenly surprised me by betting $342 – the full pot! I then asked myself: what part of his range was he representing with that bet? His story was that he had a five or a full house. That allows me to eliminate all sevens and Queens from his range. So I revised his range to: fives, pocket deuces that just hit a full house and missed draws.

Given his previous play, I couldn’t give him credit for a five. The most reasonable hand that had me beat was deuces full, which makes calling his bet with King-high just fine (as most of his range is now bluffs). Occasionally his bluff beats me of course (he might have a hand like A-8), but there were just too many hands in his range that couldn’t beat a King. So I called and my opponent turned over Jh-4h.

Thinking carefully about his range, and knowing which parts of his story to trust, let me drag a big pot that would have been impossible to win otherwise.