• How Often Should You Fold In Texas Hold'em
• How Often Should You Fold In Texas Hold Em
• When Can You Fold In Texas Holdem

All winning Texas holdem players bluff. But most losing Texas
holdem players bluff too. The difference between the winners and
the losers is knowing when to do it.

In essence, the goal should be to reach a safe middle. A good rule of thumb is that if you call on one street, you should continue on the next one. If you follow this rule, it will mean that you will be folding around 30% of the time. Of course, this percentage can vary depending on bad cards or actions that can increase or decrease that folding frequency.

You’ll find there are different types of bluffs and to be a
long term winning player you need to know each type and
understand when and how to use them for maximum profit.

Straight Bluffs

1. For example, with 15BB, you should be pushing King-Six offsuit or better, but once you get to 11BB, you should go ahead and push any hand with a King in it. At 7BB, that becomes any Queen. While you’re figuring out your push-fold strategy, don’t forget that you can also call unexploitably when you’re being put all-in.
2. Often by the time your kings may get outdrawn the pot odds are so good that you can’t fold. In a limit Texas holdem game it’s almost impossible to find a situation where you should fold pocket kings. If you raised before the flop as much and as often as possible hopefully it thinned the field.
3. Before you can determine whether or not to fold a hand, you need one to play. In No-Limit Texas Hold’em, each player receives two hole cards preflop and are immediately presented with a decision – play or fold. There are 169 unique combinations of starting hands, and some are better than others. Pocket aces are at the top while deuce-seven.
4. How often should you fold pre flop? If you don't flop a flush or straight draw, two pair, or better, you should fold to any bet. Even if you make top pair with your K or Q, you should still fold if an opponent bets into you. If checked to you, you would usually bet top pair, but if you get raised, you should fold immediately.

A straight bluff is when your only chance of winning the hand
is if your opponent or opponents fold. This often happens when
you miss a draw or your opponent hits a better hand on their
draw.

When your opponent hits a better hand by hitting their draw
it’s almost impossible to bluff them out of the hand. It’s not
always easy to see when they hit a draw, but the more you study
them and how they play the more likely you’ll be to put them on
a hand.

In the hands where you miss your draw you need to try to
determine if your opponent can predict that you missed your draw
by the board cards and the way you’ve been playing and you need
to figure out how strong their hand is.

For a straight bluff to work your opponent needs to be
convinced your hand is better than theirs and if they know what
they’re doing you need to make sure they’re not getting the
correct pot odds to call even if they think they’ll lose most of
the time.

If this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is
complicated. This is why it’s so hard to run successful straight
bluffs.

You’re drawing to an open end straight but don’t complete
your straight. You’ve been betting aggressively and the board
doesn’t show anything that looks too dangerous. You bet on the
river because the only way you can win is if your opponent
folds. This bluff has a decent chance of success because it’s
almost impossible for your opponent to put you on a straight
draw. You’ve also been betting aggressively making it look like
you have a strong hand from the start.

The flop has two cards of the same suit and you’re drawing to
a flush. Your opponent bets and you call on the flop and the
turn. On the river you don’t complete your flush and your
opponent bets. If you call you lose so you have to either fold
or raise. It’s almost impossible to get your opponent to fold in
this situation because you played the hand in a weak manner and
it looks obvious that you were drawing to the flush and missed.

Semi Bluffs

A semi bluff is when you have a hand that may or may not be
good, but you also have a draw to a better hand.

You see the flop with the ace and queen of clubs and the flop
has two clubs and the ace of diamonds. This gives you the top
pair and a draw to the flush. You want to play this hand
aggressively, even if another player is also playing
aggressively.

Semi bluffs don’t have to be as clear cut as this example.
You may pair your queen with four to a flush or have two pair
with a board that shows a possible flush.

Most of your bluffs should be semi bluffs where you have a
chance to win even when you get called.

When You Should

The short answer is you should bluff any time a bluff offers
the best positive expectation situation. This means that if a
bluff makes more money than any other option in the long run, or
loses less than any other option, you should do it.

You’re in a hand where you missed your draw and the pot has
$100 in it and you’re first to act against a single opponent. If
you check and your opponent checks you lose the hand. If you
check and your opponent bets you’ll either have to fold or
raise. If you bet your opponent can call or raise, in which you
lose, or they can fold.

In this example your only two real options are check and fold
to a raise, or bet. Checking means you have no chance to win so
the only real question is if you bet will it be profitable in
the long run. Here’s how you determine this:

If you bet $20 how often does your opponent have to fold to
show a long term profit?

Let’s look at what happens if you do this 100 times:

• Betting $20 100 times means you put a total of $2,000 in
  the pot.
• When you win you get back your $20 plus the $100 in the
  pot.
• So you simply divide the $2,000 investment by the $120
  you get back to see what the break-even point is.
• You have to make your opponent fold 16.67% of the time
  to break even.
• So if they fold 17 out of 100 times, or more, you’ve
  made a profitable play.

You can determine the percentages using different size bets
to find the one that gives you the best chance to win.

Once you know the answer to how many times they have to fold,
the only thing you need to figure out is if they’ll fold this
many times or not. In the example above, the odds are high that
your opponent will fold at least one out of every five times, or
20%, so you should make the bet.

You also need to recognize these numbers when you’re on the
other side of the picture. If you think it’s possible your
opponent is bluffing you need to use the same type of
calculations to determine if a call is profitable in the long
run.

When You Shouldn’t

On the other side of the discussion, when you shouldn’t bluff
is determined much the same way as when you should. If it’s not
going to be profitable in the long run you shouldn’t bluff.

We’ve already mentioned one situation where it’s probably not
profitable to make a bluff. When you miss a flush draw it’s
often obvious that you’re bluffing. But you can use this same
mentality to extract extra money when you have two pair or a set
and it looks like you missed a flush. When you bet in this
situation you’ll almost always get called.

Use the same calculations you learned about in the last
section and combine the numbers with your knowledge of your
opponent and what has happened during the current hand. Try to
determine what your opponent holds and try to figure out what
they think you have.

How Often

The bad news is there isn’t a magic number or percentage of
times you should be bluffing. Proper bluffs depend on too many
variables that constantly change to be able to pinpoint a set
percentage of hands.

But the good news is you can probably improve your bluffing
game immediately by doing one simple thing. Start tracking how
often you bluff now and start bluffing half of the times you’re
bluffing now.

The reasons most players bluff too much is it’s exciting to
try to fool your opponent and when you watch poker on television
you see a bunch of bluffs. The poker shows cut out most of the
boring hands and because bluffs are exciting they get shown more
often than many other types of hands.

Your other option is to stop bluffing entirely for the next
several playing sessions and then just start using semi bluffs
from time to time. Then slowly start using a real bluff no more
than once per playing session.

Almost every long term losing Texas holdem player bluffs too
often. Even some of the better players bluff a little bit too
often, but they’re good enough in other parts of their game they
can cover up some of their faults.

The bottom line is if you want to start improving your
results you should immediately stop bluffing so much.

Bad Players and Good Players

One complaint that you’ll hear often is about when a player
makes what they think is a great bluff but a player calls them
and they start whining about how they can’t bluff a bad player.
They say this like they’d rather be playing against great
players.

It’s silly to want to play against better players. The way
you make money playing holdem is by playing against players who
aren’t as good as you.

How Often Should You Fold In Texas Hold'em

Many poor players are hard to bluff because they call almost
any bet. But good players recognize this and stop bluffing
against the poor payers. Instead, bet your good hands against
the poor players because they’re more likely to pay you off.

Making bluffs work is as much about understanding the
psychology of poker and poker players and using it to your
advantage as anything else.

Years ago I was playing a no limit cash game and one of the
players was a hot shot kid who thought he was God’s gift to
poker players. He was convinced he was the best player in the
room and that he could outplay anyone and everyone.

We got involved in a heads up pot where I raised before the
flop, bet on the flop, and bet on the turn. I started the hand
with suited connectors and flopped a straight draw. I played the
hand aggressively but didn’t complete the straight. The raise
and bets I made before the river were normal size.

I knew that the only way I win the hand is by betting the
correct amount to get him to fold. Many players mistakenly think
they need to bet a lot to make their opponent fold. This is true
in some situations, but this guy thought he was so good that he
could lay down a hand in any situation proving he could read you
and your hand.

So in this situation a move all in would look like a bluff
and probably get called. So I took a long time to act, trying to
look like I was determining the perfect bet size to get him to
call, making it look like I was trying to extract the last
little bit of profit from him, and I made a very small bet.

The pot odds he was getting were so good that a good player
would never lay the hand down. But he wasn’t a good player, he
just thought he was. He thought a good player could lay down a
hand for a small bet and it made him look smart, but his ego
forced him to make a bad play.

He folded and I won the pot.

This is a perfect example of trying to understand your
opponents and how they think and figuring out a way to use it
against them. He could have called and I wouldn’t be writing
about the experience here, but until he actually became a player
that was almost as good as he thought he was, he’ll continue
making mistakes like the one we just went over.

You can learn a few lessons from this example:

• Always consider the pot odds when deciding whether to
  fold or call
• Always try to conceal how good or bad you really are at
  the poker table
• Don’t make yourself a target at the poker table
• Learn as much about your opponents as possible

Conclusion

Bluffing is exciting and can be addicting. Just remember to
make sure a bluff is the most profitable long term play before
you try it.

Always try to learn as much as possible about your opponents
so you can find the best times and situations to run a bluff.
Everything you learn about your opponents can mean more profit
in the long run.

And don’t forget to cut your bluffing in half starting today.
It’s almost guaranteed to increase your profits, and you might
find that you need to cut it in half again to increase your
winnings even more.

Hand Guide: Preflop > Flop > Turn > River

Preflop Planning is an excellent guide on how to think before the flop when deciding whether to fold, call or raise based on your position and starting hand. It's the perfect compliment to this article.

Preflop overview.

Before the flop is where it all starts, where you are forced to make your first important decision depending on all of the variables involved with the hand. It is important to make good, solid decisions before the flop, as it will form the foundations for how the rest of the hand will be played out.

If you make a high-quality decision before the flop, you will set the tone for the rest of the hand and give yourself the best opportunity to get into a moneymaking position. However, if you make a bad decision before the flop, you may well set yourself up for a big loss by getting yourself into a sticky position or missing out on a potentially rewarding hand.

Start as you mean to go on in every hand. Make quality plays at the beginning and continue throughout the rest of the hand.

Therefore after you have been dealt your cards preflop, it is important to take your time to evaluate all of the different variables in the hand, and not just make decisions on the cards that you are holding. It is important to consider your position and the type of opponents you are playing against, as well as know the correct starting hand requirements. So make sure you think very carefully before every flop and build the foundations for a profitable hand by making the correct preflop strategy decision.

Preflop starting hand selection.

Choosing which hands to play and which hands to fold is fundamental to playing a winning poker game. The best hands to play in Texas Holdem are:

How Often Should You Fold In Texas Hold Em

• Big pocket pairs: AA-TT
• Big suited connectors: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ
• Big connectors: AK, AQ, AJ, KQ

These particular combinations of cards have the best chances of winning than other cards, so if you stick to these you will find yourself in more profitable situations after the flop. It is possible to play other combinations of cards successfully, but if you are a beginner player then it is advised to stick with the big cards until you find your feet at the poker table.

Preflop position strategy.

Your position in the hand is an incredibly important variable that you should be aware of in every hand, yet it is something that is all too often forgotten about.

The dynamics of play are slightly different in the preflop betting round, as the small and big blind will be last to act, whereas they will be the first to act on every other betting round. However, the general principles of position will remain the same, as you want to try and play more hands where you have position over your opponents than in positions where you do not.

This means that you should avoid playing too many hands in the blinds or in an early position, as being one of the first to act in each hand can make things very difficult unless you are holding a premium hand. Be very careful when playing in the blinds, and don’t feel as though you have to enter more pots in these positions because you have already committed money to the pot. It is far safer to let marginal hands go rather than to call raises with half a holding and play out of position for the rest of the hand.

Your position can often play a more influential role than the strength of the cards that players are actually holding, so try and keeping the upper hand by combining good position with good cards.

The cards listed above in the starting hands selection section can be played from almost any position, but you should try and tighten up your starting hand selection in the earlier positions. So as a general rule, you can play with a wider range of the top starting hands in later positions than you should in the earlier positions in the hand.

So the top strategy tips on preflop position are:

• Always be aware of your position in a hand
• Try to avoid playing out of position unless you have a strong holding
• You can afford to loosen up your starting hand requirements in later positions
• Don’t feel committed to playing hands when in the blinds

Preflop betting tips.

When the action reaches you before the flop, you will be faced with the decision to either fold, call or raise. If there has been no raise before you, then a call will simply mean matching the size of the big blind, which is also known as ‘limping in’. This is generally not a good play, as if you are entering any pot in Holdem you will want to be making a raise and show aggression.

When Can You Fold In Texas Holdem

If you are limping in with a hand, you are either entering the pot with a sub-standard hand or you are playing a premium hand too weakly. So the real question you should ask yourself if you are first to enter the pot before the flop is; “Am I folding or am I raising?”

The majority of the time you should either 'pump it' or 'dump it'. Avoid limping in by simply calling the big blind.

Preflop bet sizing.

If you decide that you are going to enter the pot, you should be looking to make a raise of about 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind. By making a minimum raise you are letting opponents with marginal hands come in cheaply, and you are almost defeating the object of making a preflop raise.

The idea of a preflop raise is to reduce the amount of players who follow you to see a flop, as it is easier to make profitable decisions when there are fewer players in the pot. So make sure to come in with a strong 3 or 4 BB raise, and increase the size of the raise if you find that a lot of players are still calling these raises with marginal hands or if other players have limped in before you.

If there has been a raise before you, you must now consider whether you should fold, call or raise. If you have a poor or marginal starting hand you should look to fold. If you have a good starting hand like the ones mentioned above you should be happy to call and see a flop. If you have one of the top starting hands like AA or KK, should re-raise to help try and get as much money into the pot as possible.

Limping in.

There will be a few cases where limping-in will be an acceptable play. This will normally be when there have been a number of other players limping-in before you, and so you will have better odds to see a flop.

The best hands to limp in with are strong drawing hands such as suited cards with an ace or king, or any connecting cards that can make a straight. You are not looking to make top pair in these limped multi-way pots, as they can often land you in trouble. So aim to play hands that can land you a very strong holding or a strong draw, and then comfortably fold on the flop if neither of these materialize.

Top strategy tips for preflop betting:

• Don’t be afraid to bet or raise
• Make solid 3 or 4 BB raises when entering an un-opened pot
• Increase the size of your raise if other players have limped or are calling stations
• Avoid limping with mediocre hands
• Only limp if you have a potentially strong hand and others have limped before you

Other preflop strategy tips.

If you are playing in a shorthanded game such as a 6-max table, you can afford to reduce your starting hand requirements so that you can see more flops. If you stick to the starting hand requirements mentioned above, you would probably find that you are folding too often and missing out on opportunities to win money. So you can afford to play other hands such as AT, KJ, KT, QJ and so on.

When making your decision pre flop, you should also consider the type of players who you are playing against. If you notice that a tight player has made a raise, it is likely that they have a very strong hand, so you should re-evaluate the strength of your cards in this hand. Similarly, if a loose player makes a raise, it is more likely to be profitable to be call with a decent hand as you could well be holding a stronger hand than them.

It is important to not be afraid about making bets or raises before the flop. It is important to be aggressive in poker, as it is a winning style that all good players adopt. If you are afraid to make bets and raises when you should be, then you will be making unprofitable decisions and you will find it hard to ever win money from the game. To help accustom yourself to being aggressive, you could try dropping down in limits where there is less money at stake, so that you can become comfortable with playing aggressively and notice the advantages of an aggressive style over a weak playing style.

Useful preflop strategy articles:

• Starting Hand Selection (Beginner)
• Position (Beginner)
• The Gap Concept (Intermediate)
• Relative Position (Advanced)

Go back to the thorough hand guide.