Poker Article - "“Last Call” – not the way to end a night.

“Last Call” – not the way to end a night. - by Al Spath

Whether you heard it on the hit series “Cheers,” or have closed down a similar local bar, the announcement heard loud and clear, is always the same: Last Call! To many, this phrase is unwanted and premature at best, signaling the night out coming to an end soon after. When we talk about “Last Call” (particularly in tournaments we are talking about a situation where a player who needed to improve his/her to stay alive, but it did not happen.

An old poker adage that still reads true today goes something like this: “You don’t ever want to be the one calling all-in at the end, you would much rather have others having to call you with all your money in the pot.” Translation – be the player leading at the pot, not the player still needing help to win the pot. You definitely want the odds on your side, having the best of it going in, not needing to improve to win the pot. I am amazed at how many players feel the need to spend their remaining chips on long shots, instead of waiting for an opportunity where they have a better situation, offering them a more realistic chance of doubling or tripling up. We certainly understand a “final stand,” where our chip stack is so low that the blinds are chewing us up, forcing us into a situation where we must pick the “best” hand available and push it as hard as we can. There are many players who hit the “panic” button far to soon, not showing the patience to wait for the right opportunity, with better cards, such as being first to enter the pot with an initial raise, thereby improving their chances to not only survive, but get off life support altogether.

Some of these type players disregard the fact that a raise or reraise has been made in front of them, and that their chances (with a rather weak holding), have plummeted even further. Having multiple players in a hand most certainly decreases the odds for any hand to hold up, more so for marginal hands that are played. But what players see is a realistic chance (albeit slim), to triple up, to make some real headway in getting back into the game, but they fail to see the other options that could be presented if they only waited a bit longer. Their haste is their downfall, more often than not.

In a lot of cases, you could and should wait another full round in the hopes of catching cards that present a more advantageous situation. Who knows, maybe the others will knock each other out of the tournament and you may go from the bubble to the money without risking your short stack. It does happen in almost every single tournament.

I am not advocating sitting on your thumbs come crunch time, although chip management could net you a nice profit in some cases. What I am saying, however, is that players need to “select” the right opportunity to push their remaining chips into the center of the pot, when it’s most advantageous to them. What you should not be doing is risking all of your remaining chips in a situation where the opponent(s) have shown proper positional aggressiveness by raising and re-raising to the point you have to go all in and hope for the best. It is not difficult to properly assess the hand situation, seize the opportunity when the odds of a potentially final hand have a better than a decent chance of standing up, and make a last ditch effort to remain in the event with a greater chance of going on to win it, or to make additional monies for a higher finish.

Be prudent with your last call, in fact, try not to the caller on potentially your last hand and I think you will afford yourself a better opportunity to stick around and eventually win it or finish higher in the money spots for certain.

 

How often do you find yourself wishing you would have made a stand a bit earlier?