Calling with Any Two

One mistake that new players no limit Texas hold ‘em players make sometimes is folding in situations where they should call with any hand at all. Suppose the blinds are 50/100 and you have 100 left after posting the big blind. It's folded to the small blind, who raises all-in. What should you do? Call! Notice I didn't even say what hand you have – even with 32 offsuit, this is an easy call.

You're only calling 100 more chips to win a total of 400 chips, so you only need to win one time in four. Even though 32 is not a strong hand, you'll win significantly more often than 25% when the SB has a hand like KQ – any time he doesn't have a pocket pair or a 2 or 3 in his hand. A good rule of thumb is that unless you have an extremely good reason not to, you shouldn't fold in your big blind if you have only one and half big blinds left after posting. A very good reason might include something like being on the bubble in a poker tournament (e.g., 61 people left, 60 spots pay).