Folding in Poker

When people are learning how to play poker and the important skills to master, folding often takes a back seat. Many players want to learn to master the more aggressive skills in the game, but to be a great all-around player, you will need to master the art of a good fold.

Folding not only teaches you how to control your emotions at the table, but it can also cut back on your losses, and in the long run, help improve your overall winning percentage.

In this guide, we are taking you through everything you need to know about folding, including when to do it, how to force your opponent to do it, and more.

What is Folding?

Folding in poker is the act of surrendering your hand and ending your involvement in the pot. By folding, you don’t have to match the current bet, but you give up your chance to win the hand.

Knowing when to fold is extremely important, as folding when you have the worst of it is going to save you substantial amounts of money in the long run, and you know what they say; money saved is money earned!

It can be hard to know exactly how often you should fold in poker because each scenario is very different from street to street, let alone from hand to hand.

The size of the bet, the strength of your hand, your opponent’s range, the board texture, and other factors should all play into your decision of whether or not to fold.

It’s important not to go overboard and fold too much. Folding too often can be just as bad as not folding enough, as you miss out on opportunities to make money. Not only that, but your opponents will quickly realize that you can be easily pushed around, and you’ll find yourself regularly getting bluffed off pots you should have won.

So let’s take a closer look at why it’s wrong to fold too often.

• Giving Up Equity – Almost all hands have some equity against your opponent’s betting range, no matter how bad. By folding your hand, you’re giving up that equity, allowing your opponent to win more of the pot than they should. While sometimes your hand will have so little equity that folding is far and away the best play, you don’t want to get into the habit of folding when your hand has decent equity. You can’t afford to wait until you have an equity advantage; even if your hand only has 25-30% equity, that’s often enough to continue depending on the size of the bet and your opponent’s betting range.

• You Become Easy To Bluff – If you’re only continuing against a bet when you have a very strong hand, you’ll be folding most of the time. Opponents at your table will start to realize this and will bluff you more frequently. If you continue to wait for strong hands, you’ll be bluffed off a lot of pots that you should win, drastically reducing your win rate.

• Gives Your Opponents Momentum – Poker is a game of the mind. We often find that confident players play better because they’re not worried about the outcome of their decision; they have confidence that it’s the correct one, whether or not it works out. Suppose you’re bluffing into your opponent, and it keeps working; it will give you immense confidence in your decision-making, allowing you to play better in other areas of the game. This is precisely what happens when you let your opponent run over you. Alternatively, if you’re constantly folding against your opponent, you’re giving them the confidence they need to play better in other aspects of the game, making your life much more difficult.

You need to find a balance with your folding to give yourself the best opportunity to make money without gambling too much and throwing money away on hands with no chance of winning.

If you’re having trouble figuring out when to fold and when to continue, it’s handy to have a list of factors to consider before making your decision.

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE FOLDING:

When you boil poker down to its basics, there are two main ways to win a game – beating your opponent in a showdown or getting them to fold their hand before this. Thus, knowing how and when to take an aggressive approach and force your opponent’s hand is essential to long-term success on the table.

A key element to this is understanding fold equity and how it works. In its simplest poker terms, fold equity is the value gained by you taking aggressive action that could result in your opponent folding their hand. To better understand fold equity, check out our detailed fold equity guide.

As with many skills in poker, forcing your opponent’s hand requires some successful bluffing. Experienced players will be able to understand their fold equity and use it to manipulate the game with some well-timed bluffs.

WHEN YOU SHOULDN’T FOLD

We’ve spoken a lot about when you should fold in poker, but what about when you shouldn’t fold? Sometimes, knowing when not to do something is just as valuable as knowing when to do it, which is why we’ve covered some of the most common scenarios preflop and postflop to help you decide whether or not your hand is strong enough to continue with:

PREFLOP

Depending on your level as a poker player, you should have a firm idea of the hands you should be playing preflop. An experienced player will know what hands they’re raising from each position, what hands they’re calling against a raise, and what hands they’re 3betting against a raise. However, if you’re new to poker and don’t know your ranges by heart yet, these types of hands should not be folded preflop.

• Big pocket pairs like AA, KK, QQ, and JJ.
• Medium pocket pairs like 55, 66, 77, and 88.
• Suited hands with two broadway cards.
• Suited hands with an ace
• Hands with an ace and a broadway card.
• Two cards that are sequential and suited – aka suited connectors (for example, 8h9h).

Exactly what hands you should play will depend on your preflop position. The gist is that the earlier you have to act in the hand, the tighter you should play preflop, and the closer you get to the button, the wider you should play.

Some hands that don’t feature in the above list can be played as you get closer to the button, such as suited Kx, low pocket pairs, suited gappers, offsuit Ax, and many more. However, suppose you’re looking to play a tight but aggressive strategy when you’re just learning the ropes. In that case, we’d advise just sticking to our list until you fully understand the impact position has on your preflop ranges.

POSTFLOP

Postflop is, in some ways, both easier and trickier to navigate than preflop play. There are certain scenarios where the strength of your hand dictates that you shouldn’t fold against your opponent’s bet. These are the easier ones to navigate, as all you have to do is look and see how strong your hand is. If you have any of these hands on the flop, you shouldn’t fold against a reasonable amount of aggression from your opponent across all three streets.

• Good drawing hands
• Top pair
• Overpairs
• Two pair

How far you take these hands will depend on the board texture. For example, if there is four to a flush and four to a straight, your top pair will look a lot weaker than on a board where no straights and flushes are possible.

Some hands are considered very strong in the right circumstances, but there are some boards where these hands go down in value. These hands are:

• Three of a kind
• Straight
• Flush
• Full House

These hands will be best in most circumstances, but be careful on vulnerable boards. For example, if you have a flush on an unpaired board, you’re likely to have the best hand, but if the board is paired or even double-paired, the value of your flush goes down. In these situations, you should be careful if your opponent shows extreme aggression.

There are even some hands where you shouldn’t fold, no matter how aggressive your opponent is. These hands include:

• Four of a kind
• Straight Flush
• Royal Flush

These kinds of hands are almost always going to be the best hand when you make them. You could go your whole poker career without folding these hands and be a profitable player.

While it’s easy to only look at your hand to decide when to continue, you should consider how your opponent plays if you want to be as profitable as possible. Just as you should fold more often against players who are way underbluffing, you should call more often against players that are overbluffing.

Playing against aggressive players can be hard, as they put you in a lot of tough spots. However, there’s a fine line between being aggressive and being too aggressive. If you see your opponents bluffing too often, you can start to call more hands to exploit that.

You can include weaker hands, such as middle pair and even bottom pair, in your calling range against these players, as they’re far more likely to be good when you get to showdown. You can also play drawing hands more aggressively, as they’re more likely to have a weaker hand that will fold to your raise.

By considering your opponent’s playing style and the strength of your hand, you can find many situations where continuing against a bet is the most profitable play.