In the game of poker, folding refers to the act of throwing your cards into the center of the table toward the dealer. By doing so, you relinquish your claim to the current pot and forgo any chance of gaining from that particular hand.
When you decide to fold in poker, it's essential to follow the appropriate rules and etiquette, such as keeping your cards facedown and refraining from showing them to your neighbors or to those still in the hand.
The Importance of Folding in Your Game Strategy
There is a timeless saying in poker that remains relevant: 'You must understand when to hold them and when to fold them.' Every decision you make at the poker table will impact your overall financial outcome and can hint at whether you will emerge as a consistently successful player over time.
Many poker enthusiasts tend to concentrate on the more aggressive tactics in the game, such as betting, 3-betting, raising, check-raising, leading, bluffing, and making aggressive bets across all three betting rounds.
This focus on aggression is well-founded: An assertive strategy typically provides more opportunities to win pots compared to a passive approach, often leading to greater profits.
Nevertheless, folding can be the unsung strategy that makes a key difference. It might be the factor that allows you to avoid a poor call and cap your losses. Over time, these minor folds that result in no expected value (0 EV) instead of negative expected value (-EV) can significantly improve your overall success rate.
In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of the fold—defining it, understanding when to employ it in poker, and outlining six critical factors you should consider before folding.
Be sure to check various sections of this article, and don't forget to look at the flowchart at the end:
- When Should You be Folding Preflop?
- Basic Starting Hand Selection
- How to Pressure Your Opponents to Fold: Embracing the Role of Aggressor
- Post-Flop Strategies: Which Hands are Best to Discard
- Post-Flop Strategies: The Right Moment to Fold Top Pair
- 6 Key Questions to Consider Before Deciding to Fold
When Should You Fold Preflop in Poker?
Entering too many hands preflop can lead to complicated situations once the flop hits. Thus, it’s crucial to familiarize yourself with starting hand charts relative to your position to establish a sensible framework.
Maintain discipline and fold all the hands that should be discarded! Any adjustments you make from the starting hand charts should rely on your opponents’ behaviors and how you can exploit or counter them effectively.
It's important to recognize that in poker, you will generally find yourself folding the majority of your hands preflop. For instance, if you analyze the HUD stats of a successful 6-max TAG player, you’ll observe that they voluntarily enter pots preflop roughly 22% to 26% of the time. This means they're playing only one hand out of every four or five dealt to them!
As previously mentioned, minor errors made preflop can escalate into significant issues post-flop, potentially leading you into unfavorable circumstances that could lead to greater financial losses. Therefore, it’s wise to concentrate on making sound starting hand choices right from the beginning by folding unprofitable hands.
Foundational Chart for Selecting Starting Hands
You can check out the 888poker guide for charts detailing starting hands. here .
By examining the chart, you’ll understand which hands to fold preflop. Basically, you should be folding everything listed in the white boxes, as well as any hands that do not match the color guidelines for your specific position at the table.
(It's important to note that all hands from the prior position should still remain in the range for the next position player.)
To refine your preflop strategy even further, it’s essential to learn how to respond when another player has already opened the action.
Factors influencing your decision whether to call, raise, or fold various hands after the previous actions will consist of the following:
- Your position
- Your opponent’s position
- Starting stack sizes
- Size of the open
- The tendencies exhibited by other players in the hand (or those still to act after you).
- Whether you are in or out of position.
- Strength of the opponent who is opening.
Utilizing preflop solvers (such as PokerSnowie or PIOSolver) will enhance your understanding of which hands to fold based on the current situation.
The Elite Cash Game Mastery 6-max course offered by Upswing Poker also includes charts that help you decide how to react against Raise-First-In (RFI) and 3-bets depending on position and the size of bets.
Getting Opponents to Fold: Embracing the Role of Aggressor
In regard to poker, what is fold equity?
In poker, equity signifies the portion of the pot that you control, corresponding to your probability of winning the hand at any moment.
You can seize the entire pot when you successfully leverage fold equity, resulting in your opponent deciding to fold.
For a detailed examination of fold equity, we recommend visiting the 888poker article: Understanding How Poker Equity Can Enhance Your Game
Post-Flop Strategies: Identifying Which Hands to Fold
Every decision you make at the poker table will include numerous considerations. (Refer to the flowchart at the end of this article for insights on a good number of these factors.)
Consequently, the poker hands you decide to fold will vary from one scenario to another, and it's essential to maintain a clear focus to evaluate all available information effectively.
From a Game Theory Optimal (GTO) perspective, determining the appropriate frequency to fold becomes less complicated, using a concept called Minimum Defense Frequency (MDF). This principle dictates how much of your hand range should continue in the face of an opponent's bet, taking into account the size of their wager relative to the pot.
While it's only advisable to apply MDF against strong opponents (since you can gain more from weaker players with a more exploitative approach), it serves as a helpful guideline for figuring out which hands to fold when confronted with a bet.
Here’s a handy chart to use for MDF:
Following the MDF principle highlights why maintaining too broad a preflop starting range can be harmful to your post-flop performance. When faced with bets from opponents, you will need to defend more hands (from a combinatorial standpoint) if your initial hand range is wider.
This can lead to situations where you might be compelled to make calls that are not favorable in terms of expected value if you apply MDF correctly.
Post-Flop Scenarios: Gauging When to Fold Top Pair
Determining the right moment to fold top pair can be particularly challenging. Many casual players often find themselves reluctant to discard premium hands when the circumstances warrant it, leading to unnecessary financial losses.
By utilizing MDF and assessing how many of their potential hands might be stronger, players can gain clarity on where their top pair/top kicker hand ranks in terms of hand strength.
For instance, consider opening with AKo in a middle position and your opponent calls from the cutoff. When the flop reveals K-T-7 with two spades, and you bet while your opponent calls. On the turn, an off-suit 8 appears. This card likely favors your opponent's range more than yours, which consists mainly of high cards or pairs.
In this out-of-position scenario, you opt to check on the turn and take a more defensive stance. The cutoff then bets half the pot, and you call with your top pair/top kicker.
The river reveals an off-suit 9 (K-T-7-8-9, no flush possible). You check again, and your opponent places a bet of 50% of the pot once more.
According to the previous chart, you should be calling with the strongest 67% of your river range while folding the weakest 33%. When you analyze your potential hand combinations, you’ll see there are many superior candidates for calls compared to your AK: such as AA (overpairs); AJ, KJ, and QJ (potential straights); KT, T9s, 98s, and 87s (two pairs); or KK, TT, 77, and 99 (sets).
While it’s true that not all of these hands will consistently bet on the flop and proceed to check/call on the turn, the number of hands that rank lower than AK is relatively limited: KQ (top pair, second kicker), AQ (Ace-high), A9 of spades (three of a kind), and a few others.rdpair + missed flush draw).
In this context, your top pair/top kicker is actually situated toward the lower end of your range, suggesting that it would be prudent to fold.
To approach this decision from a different angle, consider what types of hands your opponent might be attempting to bluff with. The fact is, there are not many combinations your opponent could turn into bluffs, especially if they assumed they had some Showdown Value (SDV) with top pair or a mid-range pair.
In such a scenario, it's more likely that their bets are leaning towards strength, and you should adapt your strategy to fold accordingly based on this exploitative insight.
6 Key Questions to Contemplate Before Folding
At this point, we are entering the most exhilarating phase: the ultimate flowchart to use when deciding your next action and whether you should consider folding your poker hand in any given situation.
Your Opponent's Betting Range : It's beneficial to pause for a moment and reflect on which hands your opponent is likely holding at this point. This analysis should be based on how they have played thus far and the hands they are likely still betting with. To help you evaluate this range, consider these three questions:
- What bluffs will my opponent bet here?
- Is it possible that my opponent is value-betting a weaker hand than mine?
- How many combinations of value hands and bluffs could my opponent be betting in this instance?
- Pot Odds : Next, you need to evaluate the pot odds you're receiving in relation to your opponent's bet size compared to the total amount in the pot. By computing these pot odds, you can analyze the frequency with which you need to win the hand through a call in order to maintain profitability. For example, if your opponent makes a bet equal to the whole pot, you’ll need to win at least 33% of the time to break even in the long term. Conversely, with a bet that's half the pot, your winning percentage threshold drops to 25%.
NOTE : If you aren't well-versed in the concept of pot odds, I highly recommend exploring some of our articles dedicated to this subject for a comprehensive understanding of what they entail and how to calculate them.
- Opponent Player Type and Tendencies : Understanding and classifying the players you’re up against is essential for determining whether to adopt a Game Theory Optimal (GTO) approach or to focus on an exploitative style during play. If your opponent exhibits any specific weaknesses that you can take advantage of, it’s crucial to incorporate this insight into your strategic choices, enabling you to enhance your profitability over time. For instance, if you frequently encounter a player who tends to bluff excessively, you should consider calling more liberally. On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a player who plays very tightly (often referred to as a 'nit'), you'll want to be more selective with your calls, as they are less likely to be bluffing.
- Hand Strength (re Board) : It's vital to assess the texture and arrangement of the board whenever making decisions about folding, calling, or raising. For example, if the flop shows a coordinated run of 9-8-7 in red, and you happen to hold two black Aces, your confidence in your hand’s strength should be quite low. You could already be up against a strong hand such as two pair, a set, a straight, or even a flush. Additionally, if your opponent doesn’t have a strong hand yet, the board still presents numerous opportunities for them to strengthen their position in subsequent betting rounds. This is particularly true when a turn card gives you a flush that might get countered by a paired river. Board changes from the flop through to the river heavily influence how you should approach playing your hand at each stage. Moreover, consider how new cards may affect your future actions and plan your strategy accordingly.
- Hand Strength (re Range) : This relates back to the Minimum Defense Frequency (MDF) discussed previously. It's crucial to effectively defend your position, regardless of your opponent's betting strategy. Some players struggle with folding and end up making poor calls instead of leveraging better hand values. Conversely, others may fold high-ranking hands too easily in certain situations, making them susceptible to being exploited. Always evaluate your hand in the context of your overall range before concluding whether to fold or not.
- Tells/Other Factors : Behavioral tells can be observed in both live and online poker settings, but they are often more pronounced in face-to-face games. In a game where information is incomplete, it’s important to utilize every piece of data available to aid your decision-making process, including potential tells from your opponents. Always be vigilant for these signals, not just during hands you are involved in, but also when you are observing the play of others. Avoid distractions like TV or your phone after folding; stay attentive, as noticing tells will serve you well in future rounds.
As you reach this final stage of consideration, take note of any subtle elements before making your move and consider if adjustments are necessary.
This last review might include factors such as:
- Whether you find yourself in a multi-way pot with further players yet to act after you.
- How your opponents' strategies may shift in response to your table image.
- If your opponent has recently experienced a significant win or loss in a hand.
Final Thoughts
In poker, the goal of every decision is to assess everything comprehensively to make the choice that offers the highest expected value over time. When contemplating a fold (which carries an expected value of 0), you might discover alternative actions that could be more favorable than what you initially considered.
Thus, it’s essential to evaluate ALL of your choices. For instance, instead of opting to fold, consider the possibility of a bluff raise in a specific context. Perhaps your hand is too weak to warrant a call, yet too strong to simply fold? You may also possess key blockers that could improve the chances of your bluff succeeding!
In conclusion, whether you are in the early betting rounds or making decisions on the river, always keep in mind to explore all your available options before taking action.
While folding can sometimes be the optimal choice in a poker game, it is not a universal solution.