Calling Out of Curiosity
It is safe to say that the reason a lot of players end up making bad calls in situations where they obviously should have thrown their hand in the much is because of curiosity. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. Does the other player really have a flush? Is he trying to bluff me and make me look foolish? These are all thoughts that every poker player is plagued by, which is why it can be very hard to lay down your hand even though from an outsiders point of view it doesn’t make much sense to call.
An interesting experiment, though it’ll never happen, would be to see how many players would fold instead of call if the winning player was forced to flip over his hand after scooping up the chips. I think that a lot of times we call because we need the validation of knowing what the other player has, no necessarily because we are confident that we have the winning hand.
Think of how many times you’ve heard a player say “Will you show me if I fold?” Some very talented players will use that sentence as a ploy to try and get information out of another player, but most of the time it’s being asked just out of the curiosity of wanting to know what the other player has. Eliminating the mystery may increase the overall call/fold discipline at the table, plus it would probably make bluffing a little bit easier since players won’t have to call in order to see the hand to learn whether or not they were bluffed.
The main reason why this theory will never take off though is because it will give your opponents too much information. Pros and other experienced players rely on keeping as much information as possible from their opponents. If someone is forced to show you that they bluffed you four times in the last hour, they won’t be able to pull off too many more bluffs for the rest of the session. So basically, curiosity benefits the strong players and punishes the beginners and novices that can’t handle not knowing. Fight the urge, trust me.
By: Chris Iaquinta
