Cold Call

Also known as: cold-calling, flat call, cold flat

Calling a raise (and any reraise) without having already invested money in the pot that street, as opposed to defending your blind.

A cold call is flatting a raise when you have no chips committed — e.g. the BTN calling a CO open, distinct from blind defense where you've already posted. Cold-calling ranges are tighter than calling-from-the-blinds ranges for two reasons: you have no pot-odds discount from a posted blind, and you risk being squeezed by players still to act behind you.

The biggest leak in low-stakes pools is cold-calling too wide with dominated offsuit broadways and weak aces that get 3-bet, isolated, or play badly multiway. Correct cold-call ranges favor hands that flop well and retain equity multiway: pocket pairs (set-mining with implied odds), suited connectors, and suited broadways. Many of your strongest hands prefer to 3-bet instead of cold-call to deny equity and build pots in position.

Position is decisive: cold-calling is far more defensible on the BTN (you close the action, you have position) than in the CO or HJ (a squeeze looms). Deep-stacked and with set-mining odds, low pairs become profitable cold-calls; short-stacked in an MTT they don't have the implied odds and should usually fold or jam.