One of the biggest reasons intermediate players struggle to have consistent sessions is their fear of losing a hand at showdown.

Get that fear out of your head! It’s okay to lose a hand occasionally. In fact, showing down a marginal hand will actually make you money. Your opponents will know that you don’t always have to have the nuts when you bet and accordingly will call or raise your bets more liberally than they might someone who was extremely tight.

The first thing you should be asking yourself when deciding whether to call a bet on the river with a marginal hand is if the bet makes sense. If the bet does not make sense, you need to determine how often you believe your hand will be the best one if you call. How do you determine the probability that your hand is the best hand in the given situation? You need to understand your opponent and their range of hands in this situation.

Have they shown the capability of betting with Ace-high or fourth pair? How did they play out the hand? As is the case in most poker games, knowledge of your opponent and their tendencies can make this determination much easier. There is no set formula for figuring out the probability, the number you come up with will be more of an educated guess based upon your observations.

But the higher the price that you are being given to make a call on the river, the more likely you should make the call. And if you have any doubt about your opponent having a better hand than yours, you should call.

Hand example

In the example below, there are two players left in the hand on a flop of 9♠ 7♠ 4♣. An early position player bets $4 and we player calls with 5♠ 6♠.

The turn is 5♦ and we both check.

The river is J♥. Our opponent bets $8, and now we face a decision. There is $68 in the pot, and it is $16 for us to call. Even if we only think that we have the best hand in this situation one in three times, it’s still correct for us to make the call.