A lot of Main Event newcomers suddenly turn into calling stations when they get to the WSOP. It's as if they stepped off the plane and morphed into an ugly little butterfly that only knows the words ‘I call.’ The pressure of the money and the heat of WSOP fever certainly lend a hand, but more significant is the fact that most players are simply not accustomed to playing with such a large stack.
Say you have A-K offsuit and open the action for 300 with the blinds at 50/100. You get two callers and there is 950 in the pot. The flop comes K-8-6 rainbow. This is a great flop giving you top pair, top kicker. You bet 600 and are raised to 1,800. The other player folds and you call. There is now 4,550 in the pot. The turn is an innocent looking deuce. You check-call 3,000, putting 10,550 in the pot. The river is a harmless three and you check-call a final 5,000 bet from your opponent who shows a flopped set of sixes. You’ve lost half of your stack in one hand, when the best course of action would have been to put in a third raise on the flop to define your opponent's strength. Making a raise to, say, 4,500 on the flop then folding when your opponent raises again would save you nearly 5,000 chips. Or you could even lean on the side of caution and fold to the initial 1,800 raise. Regardless, calling in this spot only leads you to the rail.
The pain of calling
You cannot get information about your opponent's hand by calling. Yes, there are times you will want to call when it is likely you have the best hand and want to keep the pot small, but generally it is best to be aggressive with bets and raises.
Your opponent's reaction will typically tell you what you need to know.If they fold, they had nothing and you had the best hand. If they flat-call, then most of the time (but not always) they are on a draw or have a hand they feel might be the best but are unsure of. If you have a strong hand, you should continue firing. If you're bluffing, you should proceed cautiously, though firing another bet is probably not out of line. If your opponent raises, unless they are a maniac, it usually means they really like their hand and you should only carry on if you feel there is a chance they are making this bet with a hand that is worse than yours.