Winning by folding

"Winning by folding" is one of the basic principles for a successful poker player. This is the reason why we want to present you this article.

By MiiWiin

You always ask yourself about the important characteristics of a
successful poker player. Patience, endurance, calmness, ambition,
bravery, attention... it is certainly a mixture of these things plus
many more.

What do you tell a young beginner, who wants to play for the first time
and only knows the rules? He surely is unconfident, doesn’t know any of
his opponents, what should you advise him to do? You should tell him to
play tightly, to take no risks, not to overplay top pairs and to fold
if he has any doubts.

Especially the last point should be the one, which makes him differ
positively from the rivals. Pushing preflop with aces or going broke
with a set on the flop is not a great art of poker. It is a standard
you should have internalised. Folding a good hand in a tough situation
makes the big difference.

Certainly, most of the players are willing to fold aces in big pots against many opponents or to give up two pairs.

But there are many situations, which aren’t that well defined. We look
at our hand, the board and our unknown opponent... and we are on a
spot, which gives us a coin flip at most. Why shouldn’t we fold in this
situation?

We recently had an example, where we were holding Jacks in the blinds,
it was raised and 3-bet before. There were some opportunities now, but
we should be aware of the fact, that our Jacks were not necessarily the
best hand. You could push, ask the equilator after that and adjust the
opponents’ ranges, so that you will get an equity of 51% and are able
to declare the push to be “+EV”.

Of course we do not have this option while playing. Normally we are
sitting at 4 tables and have to face many decisions in a short period
of time. This is a situation, where I normally fold my Jacks against
unknown. I doubt that I’m ahead, haven’t invested anything, yet and
don’t want to risk anything either.

Recently it happens quite frequently that you do not want to fold hands
you consider to be strong. And why should you fold, (optimistically)
giving yourself an equity of 51%?

One reason could be your own overestimation. You normally feel superior
to the other players and don’t believe their good hands. Perhaps both
villains are just raising any two? You find it difficult to give up
your hand preflop. You eventually claim yourself to be weak. The small
devil appears on your shoulder: “How could you fold Jacks preflop
against those players? You are way too weak...!”

But exactly this weakness is the advantage. Why should you push hands
you don’t consider to be ahead with? Of course, variance will be
delighted and if you win against AK you will even feel more confident.

But who is bothered by folding Jacks preflop? Every player makes his
own decisions. The stack at the table belongs to my bankroll and this
bankroll is my money. I can do whatever I want with it. And if I
consider myself to be in a tough situation, I will give up the hand,
which could certainly be second best only.

Being able to fold good hands here sifts the chaff from the wheat.
This is the difference. The moment we have to play about stacks in
difficult situations. There you find the big money, you can win or lose.

What did we tell the beginner? “Fold, if there are any doubts!”

Now the beginner will often have doubts. More often than an experienced
player. Let’s take someone who has played more than 100.000 hands and
gained enough experience. If he faces a situation he feels unconfident
in, this situation will be so tough that “right” or “wrong” can hardly
be separated.

Unfortunately I have to answer posted hands like this:”...you could
call, but you don’t have to...” Simply because there is no better
answer.

This player is sitting at the table, looking at the opponents’ stats,
watching hands he is not involved in. He won’t be able to read a player
perfectly, but he will rather be able to be right about somebody’s play
than someone who was not involved in this situation. You can see a few
stats and consider villain to be quite loose... but this is not a read,
it is a small hint, which shows you something like a tendency, if you
could perhaps find a call.

But in the special situation only Hero is sitting at the table,
watching the events, facing a hard decision. And why shouldn’t he fold,
when he realises that the fight about small pots turned to fight about
whole stacks. Why should it be a problem to press the fold-button and
wait for a more profitable situation?

Important
“Winning by folding”, this is a sentence we should internalise. This ability, as long as we have it and use it correctly, separates us from the average player, who is too keen on seeing the showdown and pays a high price for it.

You should be aware of this ability. You should find a fold in marginal
situations, which many of our opponents wouldn’t find. The more
frequently we are in a situation we feel comfortable in and are able to
estimate the strength of our hand, the more frequently we will be able
to save these pots.

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