Call
In poker, the action of calling a hand is an indication that a player wishes to place an amount into the pot that matches a bet or matches a raise placed by one of the players before her/him in the same round. The round of betting will continue until all players bet the same amount or, in other words, until no one calls a player’s bet or raise.
If no player decides to call a player’s bet or raise, then that automatically means that they fold their hands in that round and therefore, the player who placed the bet or raised the pot, automatically wins the entire pot.
In casinos and other public cardrooms, the verbal gesture of saying “Call” is considered as a declaration or confirmation of the player’s intent. Players are not allowed to say “I call and raise x amount” because the moment the word “call” is said, it is considered as the final action of the player and the player is not allowed to add or remove anything from her/his declaration of calling. “See” is also a term that is commonly used as a replacement for “Call”.
There are different types of calls that a player can make depending on the circumstances in the game. For e.g. when a player who has already placed money in the pot for a particular round, decides to place another bet of the same amount again, it is known as an overcall. Say the calling amount is at $3 and a player has already called his opponent’s bet. After a few subsequent players have called or folded, the player decides to place another bet of the same amount, i.e. $3. The second bet as well as all subsequent calls that the player makes in this format are known as overcalls.
Cold calling is another form of calling wherein a player decides to call a raise even before s/he has invested any money into the pot for that round. This basically means that on the first turn that a player has to call the initial betting amount, s/he decides to raise instead. This would mean that after the blinds and ante are in the pot, a player may choose to straightaway raise the amount instead of calling the live blind.
Smooth calling is that particular act of calling when a player, despite having the ideal opportunity to raise the betting amount, decides to call instead. This form of calling leads to slower play, a tactic used quite frequently by players who are looking to get others to raise the pot as well, and not appear too eager to do so themselves.
On many occasions, a player may realize that s/he may not really have the best hand to make a call but despite all that, decides to go ahead and make the call. Such a case of calling the bet or raise is known as a crying call.
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