Making Hero Calls in Poker

A hero call in poker refers to calling a big size bet when all you can basically beat is a bluff. It’s not playing ABC poker and the situation often arises when playing against aggressive opponents and you are forced to make a heroic call with the bottom part of your range when your opponent is representing the top part of their range.

Hero calls aren’t a matter of simply guessing whether or not your weak holding is good. The strength of your hand is only one small factor. You need to look at your opponents playing style (are they a maniac?), bet sizing, timing, and whether their actions in the hand make sense. It’s all to do with analysing the information you have about the player and making an educated decision based on how the hand has played out.

Let me give an example of how I came to make a hero call.

I was playing in a 25nl 6-max cash game and I had a very aggressive player to my left. I was dealt Ad Qd in the SB. Everyone folded in front of me so I raise to $0.75 and the LAG player in the BB 3bet to $3. I had some history with the player and I knew they were capable of 3betting light, espeically considering it was a blind vs blind battle. I definitely wasn’t folding so the plan was to either 4bet or call the 3bet. I felt that I was ahead of their 3betting range so I decide to flat call the 3bet and see a flop.

The flop comes Jh 2h Ac and I make top pair.

I check to the preflop aggressor who bets $3.50 into a $6 pot and I call.

The turn is the Th which completes any possible flush draws. It’s also a scare card if the T made two pair if they have a worse Ax hand.

I check and villain bets $8.25 into a $13 pot. I feel like my hand could still be good here and they were possibly betting a one pair type hand with a possible flush draw. So if i was calling this bet i would call most river bets if another heart card doesn’t come out. I call.

The river is 6c which is a brick card, I check and villain shoves $18.52 into a $29.50 pot. When Villain shoves they are trying to represent the top part of their range and my perceived range is probably one pair and weak kicker hands which they want me to fold. I called and won the pot, villain showed Ah9d so they also had top pair but a worse kicker. Even though I came to make the call with top pair and good kicker, it was a hard call to make because of the board texture.

When looking at how the hand was played, I had to consider that villain was being aggressive because I played the hand very passively. Often when you check to an aggressive player they will do the betting for you, and when you lead out and bet they will raise, which is why you can’t take an aggressive line without a strong hand. Because I had no choice but to take a passive line, the villain could have sensed weakness which influenced their aggression in the hand.

A lot of new players will make a hero call because they get attached to a certain strength of hand (they just can’t let go of top pair, for example), or because they don’t want to get bluffed in a hand. This is not a good enough reason to make a hero call.

When deciding to make hero calls you should also consider there is a strong message being sent to the other player. The hero caller is saying “bluff me less in these spots, because I am willing to call with a weak hand”, ensuring the aggressive player doesn’t bluff too often, which can lead to both players readjusting their games.

Making successful hero calls is not easy and is something which improves as you get better at reading your opponents and using the information at your disposal. When playing readless against unknowns you can’t be liking your top pair too much when faced with this much aggression, but considering I knew this guy was a maniac and was definitely capable of 3betting light and bluffing on every street, it was enough information to make the call.

Finally, when I decide whether or not to make a hero call, it’s not because I’m positive that I have the best hand, but because I am also getting good odds to call. You have to be correct a certain percentage of the time to make it a break even play, so as long as it’s break even or +EV to make the call anything but calling would be terrible.
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