As a poker player you will make a significant amount of money by simply knowing when to fold. In fact Kenny Rogers sang in The Gambler: “You got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em,” so it must be true.
A common problem among losing players is their inability to let go of a hand, regardless of how the board reads or the action of the other players in the hand. It is as if they are wearing blinkers that prevent them from seeing any danger before them.
Beginners often struggle with folding their Texas poker hands pre-flop. They will play any ace or any two suited cards regardless of their position or whether or not there has been a raise in front of them. Developing a solid starting hand strategy is a key stage of learning when to fold, and if done correctly will see you folding around 80% of your hands if you are a tight players and 65-70% if you are loose.
Once a player learns how to fold pre-flop, they then encounter problem situations on the flop, turn and river. We have all come across players who will chase a flush draw or straight draw without the correct odds or implied odds to do so. It is sometimes correct to draw but if it is a weak draw you are often better off folding rather than risking making an expensive second-best hand.
The most common scenario when a player should fold but does not is when they hold a pair of aces. People see the best pre-flop hand in poker and automatically think they are entitled to win and that their hand is invincible. Although aces are a very strong hand you should be prepared to put them in the muck if the situation dictates it. Like everything in poker it is player specific, but some examples of when it could be time to fold aces include three and four flushed boards when you do not have one of the suits, when an extremely tight player raises you on a low unconnected board or when the board contains possible straights such as JT9.
Just remember that winning poker starts with folding many hands pre-flop and then also assessing your hand’s strength on each street based on the information you can gather. If in doubt what is the right move, it is usually best to fold.
The term bad beat in poker is reserved for the occasions when a player loses a hand despite being a strong favourite when the majority of the money went into the pot.
For example, you may get into a raising war with another player pre-flop and manage to get all your money in with a pair of aces against your opponent’s kings, making you an 82 per cent favourite, only for a third king to hit on the flop to stack you. Another example would be if you had a strong hand such as a set and then lost to someone after cards on the turn and river gave them a better hand.
The most common reaction when a bad beat is put on you is that of anger. This is because we know we had the best hand and as a result see the pot as our property. When a bad beat occurs it feels like someone stole that money from us so we become angry.
Becoming angry can then lead you to go on tilt, and a tilting player cannot play optimal poker and will therefore risk of losing even more chips.
One way to deal with a bad beat, whether it occurs in Texas Hold’em or Omaha poker, is to take some time away from the table. Simply choose to sit out the next hand, or maybe even the next entire orbit of the table, until you have calmed down and are not playing with your emotions in a raw state. This will minimise the risk of losing more money or tournament chips.
Some players cope with bad beats by venting their anger at the dealer or at the player who put the bad beat on them. Two people who are infamous for this are Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth and Tony G. Both men are superb players in their own right but are almost as famous for their trash-talking and berating of players as they are their poker skills.
Probably the best way to get over a bad beat would be to firstly accept that they are part of poker and secondly realise that they only happen to good players. This may sound ridiculous but with a little thought it becomes obvious.
As a good player you will be attempting to commit your chips with a mathematical advantage, also known as getting your money in good. If you are doing this on a regular basis, as you should be, the only way you will lose is when your opponent outdraws you or sucks out on you. Take this last point on board as the next time you suffer a bad beat, smile in the knowledge you made the correct play and, in the long run, it will all come good.
Being in early position in Texas Holdem Poker is not necessarily a bad thing when you only have one or two players in the hand before you. Ideally, the move we are going to talk about today is an isolation move, but you can pull this off with two players if you are watching the style of play and know that the other pre flop and flop caller has missed their hand. Whether you are playing in casino or online poker sites the strategy apply for both.
The first thing we want to address here is if it is three handed. This is the more dangerous of the two, but watching will tell you what to do here. Assume that you are in the BB and you have one limper behind you and late position raises. Both you and the limper make the call to see the flop. The flop hits and you either hit the middle pair or are holding a middle pair in your hand. You check and the limper checks and the raiser makes a continuation bet that is called.
If you have a crafty player before the raiser, they may be looking to make a move and watching how they reacted in similar positions will help you with the size of their bet. If you have seen them put in a turn bet to steal a pot, your bet is going to have to be enough to chase them off of their hand. If they usually fold with a turn bet, you can get away with a value bet here to get them out and go up against the initial raiser.
When you have isolation, your move here is pretty straight forward. You want them to make their continuation bet and then you are looking for something harmless to fall on the turn. If that card hits, you immediately fire on the turn to give the raiser something to think about. Unless they are sitting on a big hand, they will more than likely fold here. If the board has put a draw out there, they may just call and go fishing for the river card to improve them.
This move is going to pick you up a lot of pots as when the stakes get a little higher, players tend to get out versus risking losing a chunk of their stack. The successes that you have with this move should more than make up for those times that you get caught by an actual hand. If you are successful, this will eventually pay off in a big way when you are lucky enough to have a monster hand and the raiser misreads you as doing the same play and that is what this game is all about.
Folding top pair is not something that comes very easy for a lot of poker players, but it can be a dangerous hand against the wrong opponent. Once again, your power of observation and notes are going to lead you in the right direction and making sure that you know who you are up against will save you a lot of heartache when you think you have a big hand.
When you hit top pair against an aggressive opponent, the normal play is to apply pressure or set up a trap and try to take them for everything that they have. When you are up against a tighter player, everything changes and you have to recognize this situation or you will be walking up to the cashier to get some more chips. It is usually an easy read as long as you are paying attention.
Tight players will normally only come over the top when they are sitting on a monster hand that cannot be beat at that point in time. Assume you come into the hand with a raise in late position with AJ suited and have a tight player in early position that limped in. The SB folds and the BB makes the call along with the tight player. The flop comes out J73 rainbow. The BB checks as does the tight player and you are put on a decision as to how much to bet.
Now you have gotten exactly what you wanted and have hit your hand. The flop is about as good as it gets for you and stringing people along is probably where your head is at and where it should be at this point. You make a half pot sized bet and the BB calls and the tight player makes a move and raises three times your bet. What are you going to do here?
Whether you want to or not, the play is to fold and get out of the way. There are two things that point you in this direction and I would be willing to bet any amount of money that the tight player is sitting on a set. The first of these is that they came over top of you. The J does not scare them and you can be pretty sure that at the very least they sat on KK or QQ hoping to not see an A on the flop. However, it is much more likely that they have a set.
The second factor is what should really scare you here. Regardless of what you do, there is still another player in the game. The fact that they have dismissed you and are making a play with someone else that already has money invested tells you that something is amiss here and your JJ is no good. The set is the call here and you need to take the small hit and wait for the next battle.
There are those that will tell you that it is impossible to bluff in limit poker, but all you need is the right opponent. Jennifer Harman is one of the best limit players in the world and in her chapter on Limit Hold’em in Super System 2, she is very specific about the exact type of player that you can catch on a bluff in limit.
The player you are looking for is the “Genius” of the table. It will take some time on the table to catch him and then you are going to need the perfect board in order to do so, but you can definitely take down some chips and stroke his ego at the same time allowing for another bluff later in the game.
“Mr. Genius” is going to pride himself in making big laydowns on the river and will make sure everyone knows that he is folding a big hand. He will more than likely do this when an obvious straight or flush hits the board and regardless of his hand, he will let it go to prove how great of a poker player he is. We love these kinds of guys as they almost take pride in losing money the ‘smart’ way.
In order to convince him you are on the draw, you will need to play the hand that way from the very beginning. For this move, you should be acting behind him for the best effect. When he makes his preflop raise, you are simply going to call him down. If the flop hits and presents an open ended straight for flush draw, you have your bluffing hand.
More than likely, he will fire off a continuation bet and you need to come right over the top. This is a pretty common move in limit and no limit as you are building the pot for when the big hand hits. The key to the whole hand lies in the next card. The best situation would be for the turn to come up blank. He will more than likely respect your raise on the flop and check it down to you. In order to get him in your sites, you are going to have to check it also.
The reason you do this is because of the raise on the flop. When you are on a draw, you will raise in position to get the free card on the turn. If the raiser is on a draw, they will check the turn if they don’t hit and get to see the river for free. Playing the hand this way against the ‘Genius’ sets it up perfectly for the river bluff.
Your check is going to put him on alert that you are on a draw. When that river card pops the draw, you can be assured that as long as he does not have the hand, you are going to be able to take this one down. If he bets, you raise, if he checks, you bet. Again, as long as he did not hit the hand, there should be some deliberation followed by a nice speech about how he figured you had it, but had to take a shot anyway or a shake of the head as he says he can’t believe you sucked out. Tell him “nice fold” and take down your pot.
