GGpoker launch controversial 'Auto Fold' feature
A great way to speed up the game or a dangerous precedent to set for the future of online poker? We look at 'Auto Fold' from GGPoker.
Last week GGPoker launched a new feature for Rush & Cash games, 'Auto Fold'. This feaured allows you to set a minimum playable range on fast-fold tables. If you select a hand to be automatically folded you will still be dealt it, but you will not see it.
This doesn't mean you automatically play the hand either, you can still fold when it is dealt to you, it just means you set a threshold for the hands you want to see. The one exception is if there is a Cash Drop at your table, you will still have the option to play any hand at that point.
You will still post blinds and antes, you simply won't see them being posted, because you are on another table already.
GGPoker's new Auto Fold feature at Rush & Cash is now live pic.twitter.com/KK2Vn3cWat
— Anuj Arora (@anuj2212) June 30, 2023
More hands per hour?
This feature could only work at Rush & Cash, where you have the option to fast fold onto the next hand. On the one hand, it works for the operator, recreational player, and grinder. Operators and grinders will see more hands played, while recreational players will be less bored between hands.
This has not been a popular feature in the poker community, however. The first concern is that this will make Rush & Cash closer to RTA poker. It's hard for somebody to follow perfect preflop ranges, even if they have a chart in front of them, but you only have to input Auto Fold ranges once.
This is not strictly the current issue with Auto Fold because it appears you can only set one range, you cannot specify by table position. A perfect UTG range will not be a perfect Button range, and certainly not a perfect Big Blind defence range. For example, this is a GTO 100BB defence range of a Button open. If somebody was autofolding T5s or 52s from every seat, they would in theory be sacrificing EV.
A dangerous precedent?
It is a dangerous precedent to set, however. This is one step away from inputting your ranges from every position and then preflop poker really does become RTA.
The other major criticism of autofold is that it removes a major part of the game tree. Some of the biggest errors in poker stem from bad preflop decisions, even if it is much further along in the hand. A preflop error compounds in poker.
My hunch is that, in its current format, Auto Fold might stop spewy preflop errors but replace them with nitty preflop errors. I can certainly see players not defending wide enough preflop, for example, with this new feature.
I'm not overly concerned about Auto Fold as it is, but I think this is a dangerous precedent to set. It feels like we are a few steps away from removing preflop as a street altogether if the feature evolves. I'm not sure operators should be taking such an active role in the strategic decisions of their players, even though as a player I might find it quite useful myself.
Have you used this feature? Let us know in the comments:
