Explanation of Overcall
In poker, the term \" overcall \" refers to the action of calling after another player has already called a bet ahead of us.
To illustrate, consider a situation with three players on the flop. If Player 1 makes a bet and Player 2 calls that bet, Player 3 would then overcall . If more players are involved in the hand, any later calls made against Player 1's initial bet will also qualify as overcalls .
An overlimp is a specific kind of overcall that pertains solely to the scenario where players are calling after the initial big blind during the preflop stage. For instance, if the under-the-gun (UTG) player opts to limp in preflop, any subsequent limps that take place will be categorized as overlimps.
Example of Overcall used in a sentence -> After the button made an opening raise, the small blind decided to cold call, and we chose to overcall from the big blind position.
Incorporating Overcall into Your Poker Strategy
Regardless of whether we are discussing preflop or postflop overcalls , or if we are looking at it within different poker variants aside from Hold’em, overcalls inherently possess two key traits.
1. It suggests that we are likely going to participate in a multiway pot. This means our hand selection when contemplating an overcall should favor hands that perform particularly well in these types of pots.
2. We typically receive more favorable pot odds in situations involving overcalls. With one or more players having acted before us, our required contribution is usually lower when compared to the overall size of the pot, which results in improved pot odds. While this might lead us to think we can afford to continue with a wider range of hands, it’s essential to keep in mind that the risk associated with domination is significantly greater in multiway situations. Hands of medium strength tend to lose value since they are likely to already be behind or could be outdrawn by the river. Likewise, weaker drawing hands lose substantial value because of the risk of getting dominated when they hit. The types of hands that truly benefit from enhanced pot odds are often those that also offer strong implied odds, particularly strong draws in this context. Thus, even though we enjoy better pot odds in multiway scenarios, this doesn't grant us the freedom to defend an excessively wide hand range.
See Also
Overlimp , Overpair , Limp , Implied Odds , Pot Odds