Golf Channel 1

Sometimes it is the simple things that let you win poker.

And one of the things that even the most experienced poker player might be guilty of is you don t do not recognise the situation when you should fold em.

Or rather, the temptation is too great and you wish to hold em when you should not.

It is a fact that you cannot win every single hand at poker and you will therefore lose some hands, and some chips. The question is how many chips will you lose when that happens? And how often?

Knowing when to fold means staying alive longer in the game, and staying alive means the having the opportunity to win more chips later, and

eventually win the game.

Here are common situations when players fail to fold when they should. When faced with these scenarios in your next game, recognise when to fold em:

a. Fold the poor starting hands. There will be situations where you go on tilt a hand involving a big pot in which you get a bad beat, or when you have a run of really bad starting hands. None of these are a reason to start playing more hands than you should. In fact, for emotional reasons, you may want to just fold em and take a step back and let everybody else play for a while.

b. Your cards may be strong, but you

must recognise when someone else s may be stronger. You start a hand with a delicious pair, and the flop reveals one or more cards that allows for a strong possibility of a pair higher than yours. For example, if you have Q-Q and the flop is A-K-4, that is a scary flop for you. Assuming that you had raised pre-flop and were called by one person, it s possible that they have a K or an A in their hand. In other similar scenarios, you have to identify when a two-pair can be beaten by a higher two-pair or trips, or your straight might still be beaten by a flush. Recognise when somebody has better cards than yours, and know when to lay it down.

c. Recognise when opponents are slow-playing or making small raises inviting you to re-raise them. If there are 4 cards of the same suit, or 4 cards creating a straight possibility on the board - just by odds and statistics alone, if you do not have a flush or a straight in your hand, then consider that someone else may. The more players in the hand, odds are that you are a beat. Your opponents, knowing that they probably have the highest cards, may slow-play and wait to get to the river before raising thereby representing that they may have something, but not concealing how strong

is hand actually is. Small raises from the opponent may also be a lure to make you re-raise. In such situations, there may be merit in folding.

Learning to fold is actually pretty simple its learning to have discipline.

Half of it is recognising the situations outlined above when you are trapped and should be folding.

But the more important half really is psychological.

Many a times people know they are beat, but do not want to lay it down. Often, they just want to call a bet to show they are not afraid of raises, or because they are curious what the opponent has.

Discipline, discipline, discipline learn to fold em - because it is the

simple things that let you win poker.

AKSuited runs the website RoyalFlushAsia.com - Your Poker Centre For Asia and the Asia Pacific, and covers information about Texas Hold’em No Limit poker, the best online poker rooms and bonuses, and poker chips in the Asia and the Asia Pacific region.