Knowing When to Fold

Poker can seem like such an easy game when you are making good hands and betting them strongly and not getting played back at. Logic should tell you that you won’t always have the best hand so if you get played back at you really need to consider whether or not you still have the best hand.

The first thing to consider is the table image of your opponent and how they perceive your play. If your opponent is a tight passive player that only bets their strong hands, even if you have a good hand like top pair top kicker (TPTK) you probably have to think you don’t have the best hand if facing aggression. In saying that, if your opponent is a loose aggressive player you can’t let them run over you, TPTK hands are probably the best hand even when faced with resistance.

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When you are playing poker, you always need to remeber that money you don’t invest in the pot is money you can’t lose. If you think you are beat based on information you have picked up at the table, then know when to fold them and pick another spot. Winning poker players know that winning poker is not about winning the most hands but winning the most money. If you think you are beat then folding is a much better option then speculating with the hand. The best strategy to implement is if you are unsure if you have the best hand just let it go. You are unsure for a reason, you haven’t got sufficient reads on your opponent, and in a game of misinformation where every little piece of information is immensely valuable, this is really crucial.

Let’s say you have AK in late position and you open raise for $4. The player in the BB calls. The flop comes 7c 2h Kc. BB checks and you make a continuation bet of $8. The BB check raises to $24! Do you get the feeling they are strong or weak here? Do you think if the BB had a K they would raise here? This is where your attention to the previous hands will pay off by knowing how your opponents play.

If they are a tight player, they probably wouldn’t raise a Kx hand and would be looking for pot control with only a one pair type hand. Considering they called in the blinds, they more then likely don’t have speculative type hands in their calling range in a heads up pot, so you can pretty much narrow down their range to pocket pairs and hands like AK/KQ. In situations like this it really smells like a set but you have TPTK. If your reads on your opponent are they can only have a set in this spot then just fold the hand. Losing your entire stack with TPTK vs a set can be a costly mistake and one pair type hands are never usually the best hand when playing against tight players.

The best way to avoid awkward spots where you can be unsure whether or not you have the best hand and if you should fold is to play fewer hands pre-flop. You don’t want to play too tight because you will never get paid off when you make a good hand, but you want to tighten up to a certain degree.

It also really helps to put your opponents on a range of hands and analyse their actions. If their actions illustrate that they can only have a hand which has us beat it’s best to fold even if we hit the flop.

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