No specific hand. Maybe this isn't the place to post this. But I was thinking about this philosophically for awhile now. I heard someone (a good player) at my room say:

"multi-way, when facing a bet and we're not closing the action, very few hands want to call, it's either a raise or fold"

I was thinking about this as a generalization to pre-flop (although this guy was talking post flop). Why is calling often worse? What hands (if there are so few) prefer a call?

I understand from a beginner perspective, calling represents spinning the wheel, pulling the slot machine arm or the like. "Okay this is how much I have to pay to see the flop, spin"...

..but as you improve what is the purpose of calling? What I've come up with is:

"my hand is not as good as yours now but there's a higher probability my hand will improve to a better hand than yours at some point in the future streets"

The guy's statement isn’t even true postflop. It is can be generally true preflop, but less so when there are fewer people left to act, less so when we have position (button).

This misses the mark. We call because:

1. We have equity vs the betting range (we beat bluffs and potentially some value OR have a good chance to improve or both),

2. Believe that we will get to realize that equity (we have high enough raw equity, we are in position, we think villain has too many bluffs, we think villain will give up with bluffs on enough on future streets, we have implied odds, and/or we may decide to bluff later)

3. It is positive EV (better than folding) and higher or the same EV as raising (we are getting a good enough price with direct or implied odds, we have a bluff catcher, we have a value beater but are sometimes beat and don't get called enough with worse when we raise, we have a hand that has equity and can bluff later streets, we don't need fold equity as much, our hand is not vulnerable, and/or our hand functions well as a trap).

What about check-calling OOP?

Generally our equity for check calling OOP needs to be higher since it is harder to bluff when we miss and harder to get value if we hit a nutted hand. This is especially true on the turn facing half pot or more. In position we might call with a weaker open ender since we can value bet or raise river if we hit, or bluff river when we miss, especially when checked to. OOP our options will likely be to check fold or check raise if we check called the flop.

Note, value hands are played similar to our bluffs. In position, we can just call more with nutted hands because we will have opportunities to get the money in on future streets. OOP, we check raise more with our nutted hands.