Browse » Home » General Poker, Poker Strategy » Knowing When to Fold Them

Knowing When to Fold Them

March 15, 2008

It may seem like the opposite of what you should be doing, but in the game of poker one of your best skills is to know when to fold.

That’s right, quitting so that you can rather play another round, is one of the keys to winning. Why? Because in poker, you don’t want to waste either your time or your chips on a bad hand, so the sooner you put it down, the better.

When you fold, you drop out of a chance to win the pot. Usually, a player just tells the others around the table that they are folding or they just throw their hand into the discard pile. Be care about what you do with cards, though, depending on the rules of the game you are planning. In some games, when you fold you are not allowed to turn your cards over.

An unwritten rule you need to be sure to follow is not to fold out of turn. This can hurt the balance of the table and give a player a competitive advantage when they shouldn’t have one.

The key, though, is to know why you should fold. There are many reasons why - all of which could benefit you in the long run. One of the biggest reasons to fold comes when you figure out some other player’s tells. If you know someone is bluffing and really has a good hand, then you should fold in order to save yourself some chips. Of course, the opposite is also true, in which you could figure out a players’ tell tendencies and decide not to fold and stay in the game.

Other reasons to fold are when you have a hand you should play - a pair lower than jacks, for instance, with nothing helping on the flop.

There are a lot of skills you need to learn in order to excel at poker. While bluffing and betting are two of the biggest, learning when to fold your cards is up there too. 

Written by Tom · Filed Under General Poker, Poker Strategy |  

Voice Your Opinion