when to fold preflop. We'll break down each of these rounds, how they work and how you should be playing each one. when to fold preflop

 
 We'll break down each of these rounds, how they work and how you should be playing each onewhen to fold preflop  Before we get into a specific hand example, let’s review why the in position player has such a great advantage

e. We must call $5. ago. But occasionally it is the right thing to do. Now lets say you're up against two opponents who both fold 1 in 3 times. Gathy. So now let's get to the much more interesting question of should you ever fold your pocket aces postflop (flop, turn or river). In a balanced strategy, you will have a fold to 3-bet of somewhere near 55%. 5bb. When facing a 4-bet from UTG-UTG+2, you will not have enough equity to always call and may need to fold preflop (what a waste of 99). That's why you have to act tighter there. More semibluffing, because your fold equity is higher with a tight image. This gives you two ways to win the pot in poker, either by having the best hand or by successfully bluffing. Calling generally sucks in NLHE. AQo is notoriously tricky, but this makes it easier. Just play the game correctly and don’t try to avoid coolers. John Beauprez: Folding the nuts correctly on the flop occurs most frequently. 2. Position is one of the most important factors in almost any regard when it comes to poker strategy. Please point me at that game. If allowed by your poker site/room, we recommend keeping the preflop raise charts up while you play (until you memorize them). It’s more fun that way. 6 Handed = 34%. 6 ♠ 4 ♦ 3 ♥. e. Turn Strategy. -multiple. You open to 2. Get a lot of experience playing hands, and you will begin to see where you’re able to make profits with hands that aren’t very good when you have the advantage of position. You can therefore play more of. Playing Top Pair Top Kicker on the Flop (As the Preflop Raiser). When playing from a non-blind position, you should only 3-bet with this hand when the raise came from the Cutoff. When you’re not the first player to enter the pot, re-raise (3-bet) most of the time when you decide to play a hand. In one word, yes. Suited Ax type hands serve both as blocker hands to take down more pots preflop and they also make very strong hands by the river. You decide to call. Facing raises or major bets on this flop will have a player considering a fold. 9. If I look at the winningest players in my database with a win rate >10bb/100 hands with at least 3K hands, they fold between 71% and 81% of the time preflop. When to Use This Exploit. You hear a lot about "push-fold" strategy when short-stacked in poker tournaments — that is, when you've reached a kind of "danger zone" with your chip stack at which you haven't any room for. He loves to gamble and has been stacking off postflop with garbage all session. A hand as strong as AK has "only" 65% equity versus a hand as weak as 74o. 5 times the big blind and get 3-bet to 10 big blinds. Unopened Pots. Make the best hand. It is an essential concept for both analyzing opponents. When to Fold in Texas Holdem. When a player calls preflop instead of folding or raising, that player is said to have limped in. For example, if he sees that there is a high probability that the opponent will fold to his preflop raise. A precise and easy to use visual representation of GTO preflop ranges for 4 and 5 card Pot Limit Omaha. The reactive would be just simply reacting to the opponent’s range and making a decision from there. And even if DiStefano had AA you can still hit a set there are still some outs not much tho. Hand Guide: Preflop > Flop > Turn > River. Especially hands that are speculative can be added (lower. These boards are great for us as the preflop raiser, I would be c-betting these boards very often with most of my range for a small sizing on both rainbow and two-tone boards. There are three sets of charts. You Must Be Cautious with A-K. When you fold the small blind in a multi-way limped pot, it will be noticed, and your opponents will. Its kind of a cooler but Im pretty sure I made a really bad play here, and should have gotten away. This play works well from position, and you don’t need any key blockers to make this kind of bluff. That said, if you’re in an extremely soft live game in which your opponents are rarely raising/3-betting preflop, you can consider a very exploitative open-limp with Twos in spots you would otherwise fold it. It is folded around to your big blind, you have AA. While I don't advocate folding KK preflop very often, there is a specific time and place to sometimes entertain the idea. Your sample size will certainly test the usefulness of some of these filters. Students read such a statement and extrapolate that to mean “continuation bet 100% of the time” –. Since the bottom 20+, depending on the size of the. You can make money in poker by making a bet on the missed flop. Many poker schools give away free. If you three-bet your opponent’s preflop raise with 8♠-7♠ and get called, while you are likely behind their hand initially, your hand has great flop potential and may be the best hand by showdown. Against a Middle Position raise, fold if you are in the Cutoff. Seeing flop 9 handed even with the strongest preflop hands is good way to turn what was the best hand preflop into third best hand post flop. Kim Hultman is on the Button with Q♣ J♠ and calls. Folded pocket kings preflop last night. Monotone – All three cards are the same suit, but the cards aren’t necessarily close together: Q ️8 ️5 ️. This leads to a few advantages—others with weaker hands fold, the player who raises is. If this player will fold his hand 1 in 3 times, this means you will pick up the pot by bluffing 33% of the time. Another common scenario is you raise 2. If both an Ace and a King hit the. Let’s take a look at one such scenario: Example: The Button raises and the Big Blind calls. . Example: 9 6 , 7 2 , K 10 , 6 3 , Q 5. Fold to 3-bet. There are four distinct parts to a Texas Hold'em hand: preflop, the flop, the turn, and the river. , AK, AQ, QQ, JJ. Curious to hear feedback. The first picture is the tightest range that would result in a favorable call with 22, and the second picture is the tightest range that would result in a favorable call with AK. You can re-raise, fold or choose to flat call. 1. Most people go all-in pre-flop with hands way worse than KK, e. Simply put, every other hand you can be dealt is going to lose you money. If you limp on the button with JsTs and the big blind gets to see the flop for free with A♥2♣, he will win the pot roughly 51% of the time. Flop: Q♠ Q♥ 2♣. Rather than fold tho, I usually just end the preflop action and play a flop. Looking at the starting hands chart above, three things should be clear: The stronger your hand (i. In other words, these are the hands you should play preflop when the action folds to you, and you should play them by raising. Hero raises to $75. 3 Handed = 61%. 4:1 so hard to fold them. It is an essential concept for both analyzing opponents. If your opponents fold to your preflop and you have a playable hand, always be raising! Examples Of Raise-First-In Ranges. Push/fold should be utilized when your stack becomes short — around 15 big blinds (bb) or fewer. When the action reaches the player in the small blind position, that player can either call the bet, by putting in additional chips to match the largest bet amount, or fold, forfeiting their chips to the pot. With a preflop ante of $1, there will be $9 total already in the pot (antes plus blinds), of which you already have a forced monetary commitment of 11. 22 through 55, it is always tempting to try and see the flop. From their discord channel: Rush & Cash - Auto Fold. For example, if we were to go all-in for 100bb, people are going to fold almost every hand in the blinds! Preflop sizing is a matter of efficiency so while making a pot size raise will win us the blinds more often, it may not be the most efficient size. Hands with better connectivity and domination potential will have a better performance. The reason I like to call preflop more is that I feel my edge is playing postflop. When you have a pocket pair smaller than AA or KK, you can make an exception and call a raise, as long as both you. Folding any hand preflop except for AA. A reg or nit cold 4 bet utg +2. Remember, getting a missed hand like Q ♠ J ♠ to fold when we have a low flush draw is a nice win for us. For example: $0. Against those who limp-call then fold to a continuation bet if they miss the flop you can also profitably isolate their limps with virtually any two cards, because you will win all the pots. 4 Handed = 49%. This strategy guide covers the many aspects of knowing when to fold good hands – both before the flop and after it. The first rule is fairly obvious. , but for something that is brought up as an option so often, I haven't actually seen or read a good explainer behind the why. Here is a perfect example of a hand where we hit a set with pocket fours and the action proceeds to get very, very crazy, suggesting a fold might actually be in order: Beginning with preflop in. Most strategy articles seem to focus on playing the flop and river well, but leave out the turn and almost consider it to be a bridge between two more important. Very generally - two high cards, pairs, connected cards (eg 8 9) and suited cards are good. you're not playing to hit (necessarily). In poker, blinds are forced bets that some players must place preflop. I personally started with the upswing charts. Any good explanations or resources would be. 9. 59%. Limp in and let me crack your ass. UTG limps, utg+1 raises to $15, HJ calls. Preflop is a crucial round for players, hence they should have a preflop poker strategy to play with. There are also more arguable circumstances: You also may want to fold QQ preflop if you are at the bubble and cashing is very important to you. When I flopped top two pair in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in a multi-way pot and faced a lot of aggression, I had to ask myself. This is true only if nobody has raised yet in front. When you move all-in preflop, you put your opponent on the spot as they have to decide whether or not they are ready to risk a major fraction of their stacks to call your bet. Your. This is a spot where it might be better to fold your AA. Hands You Should Be 3-Betting Preflop. When you should start playing push/fold is a matter of debate. If you’re not sure how to gauge the strength of your preflop hand, consider studying a preflop chart. Limp in and let me crack your ass. It is named this way because the player who decided to take the initiative preflop has continued seizing the initiative on the following street. The Small Blind is the smaller of two forced “bets” in Hold’em and Omaha. Flop: ($1) Q♦, 3♠, 9♦(2 players) SB bets $1, Hero calls $1 It would be an even greater shame to accidentally fold if you have AA preflop (which is the best possible preflop hand. Position is extremely important. But in the early. Those conditions are. The strength of a top pair hand fades significantly when a flush completes. Any Pair/Any BDFD: 44% folding frequency. These factors typically make 99 function better as a call than a 3-bet against early-position openers. Hands like J-Ts - 7-8s and pocket pairs all make huge hands when they hit the flop and are easy to fold when you miss. Folding in this spot turns out to be a theoretical mistake, but not a massive one (8. Preflop Analysis: Referring back to the 3 Pillars of Exploitative Poker, let’s analyze Daniel’s Hijack open and how to adjust to it. For example, if you face a tight, open raise from early position and you have trip rainbow aces like A-A-A-7, then you are supposed to. If the action gets too hot quickly then you can be pretty sure someone likely has AA or KK. It still doesn't mean you shouldn't have bet, it just means that none of the other players had a hand that they felt like. Execute check-raise shoves with strong made hands and draws when the board is. TT and 99 – Fold in early position, but raise from any other spot in unopened pots. This free video will show you what fold equity is, what a fold equity calculator is, and how to use this tool on your own. g. You should, however, begin to 3-bet 99 against later position raises and prepare to call a 4-bet should. You can call to increase ur stack x4 but the risk to. And it’s incredibly important that you remember to remove the hands a player would re-raise with when building their preflop calling range. Monotone – All three cards are the same suit, but the cards aren’t necessarily close together: Q ️8 ️5 ️. When you enter the pot, you usually want to be raising as it provides you with preflop fold equity when opponents fold their hands. A precise and easy to use visual representation of GTO preflop ranges for 4 and 5 card Pot Limit Omaha. Don’t ever fold kings preflop even if they are tightest player ever with litteraly zero bluffs just don’t do it espically online. Fire the flop like you hit with a pot sized bet is cheaper with more fold equity I think. Even the loosest preflop players (if they’re winning players) fold before the flop around 70 percent of the. See full list on thepokerbank. So i thought about missing 1-2 outs is good enough to fold my AKs. At around 100 big blinds, and certainly above, you should be much more cautious in getting all your chips in the pot preflop. Reply. But to fold these two hands when some monkey sneezes at the pot is a massive mistake. There are plenty of them in the books, forums and articles by professional players. Enjoy!1. You call and take a flop out of position in a bloated pot. Preflop Analysis. The answer to this question is yes. Every hand that. I have lost in tournaments in deeps runs with KK VS AA and I would never fold all in jams preflop with KK, To strong a starting hand preflop to fold. PREFLOP GUIDE FOR RAISING FIRST IN 6 Preflop Charts The ranges that follow, are the hands you should Raise First In (RFI). Along with the hand, Ray actually sent in a write-up as well. You double-barrel As9hKs8h. It is the WSOP ticket, for your favorite tournament, that you always dreamed of playing, but you can’t afford to pay $10,000 entry buyin. The question or whether to hold’em or fold’em is the first and most important decision you will make. Also remember- raise every hand that you decide to play. If you limp on the button with JsTs and the big blind gets to see the flop for free with A♥2♣, he will win the pot roughly 51% of the time. Think of pre-flop poker as a pie chart. While. While it's not glamorous, being able to fold the correct hands in poker is what separates the winning players from the losing players, and knowing which poker hands to fold preflop could improve your win rate. g. Your response to a 3-bet should be a fold in 55-60% of cases. After all, one of three things can happen if you only 4-bet super premium hands: You fold and they win the pot. This article will show you which poker hands to fold or play in pre-flop. Bet with draws that are too weak to check and will fold out better hands by betting; Example: 7 ♦ 6 ♦ on 9 ♦ 3 ♠ 2 ♦. Like 578ss or 235r. A♦7♥ 3♠. I was calling way too liberally with AK and even stacking off with it postflop on A high boards, but the truth is I don't think the poker games are that bad where that makes sense. Facing raises or major bets on this flop will have a player considering a fold. Learn about timings of blind increases in Texas Hold'em and top strategies. Both examples are clear checks. 5 Handed = 40%. Less semibluffing and more 3-betting for value, because your opponents are folding less often. So don't play hands like these. A limp is an act of placing the minimum bet that is required to stay in a hand. by Jordan. The Small Blind position is between the Button and the Big Blind and is usually half of the Big Blind. It's still only one. This is a very bad strategy to use for a number of reasons. If the sb was not the button you would have a lot more folds to the initial bet preflop - why invest more money in a pot when you are going to have to play out of position - just get out cheap and wait for the button. Raise or Fold ONLY Challenge Details. Many pros seem to think it’s a wrong move. For example, these hands could be low pocket pairs, aces with playing cards that have a face value of less than 10, or suited connectors with a seven, eight, or nine. Turn strategy overview. AA a cool $160,000 (4 buy-ins) deep. Take advantage of their over-folding frequency, but remember that this skillset requires a good understanding of breakeven-%, hand reading, and the effects of one-vs. The adage of NEVER folding KK pre-flop is really incorrect. Be more inclined to bluff when your hand can still improve. If a player has limped in front of you, you should tighten up your raising range from that position as you have 1 extra player that can continue against your raise, and you should increase. The first player to bet more than the big blind amount preflop is raising, and any action that increases the bet even more is known as re-raising. Watch this video to the end and you’ll know when to fold aces preflop… Reply. The adage of NEVER folding KK pre-flop is really incorrect. In Texas Hold’em, most re-raising happens in the preflop betting round. Folding any hand preflop except for AA. The preflop caller can check-raise in a single raised pot ; The preflop raiser can check-raise in a single raised pot; The preflop caller can check-raise in a 3-bet pot ; The preflop raiser can check-raise in a 3-bet pot; Let’s take a look at the differences between the numbers behind single raised pots and 3-bet pots (assuming 100bb starting. In pre-flop rounds, only the big blind can check while everyone else has the opportunity to check on the flop. Here are a few examples of flops that should never be check-raised by the Big Blind because they heavily favor the in position pre-flop aggressor: K ♣ J ♥ T ♠. Betting Rounds: Before The Flop : Flop : Flop Hands : Turn : River. When you raise preflop 3-4xbBs most hands below pockets or A10 will fold out of position, however you might get called by QJ or 10J type boradway cards or even suited connectors from players in position. Also, call up to 20xbb if somebody re-raises you. Looking at the starting hands chart above, three things should be clear: The stronger your hand (i. We generate fold equity preflop; We still have very good equity when called, even if we end up being a small dog; Most players do not punish us anywhere close to enough with 4bets; To illustrate this last point, an expert winning short-handed player will typically have a 4bet range of 4-5%. This is something that I cover in massive. Full ring 2/5 UG action table. By raising to 3x the big blind preflop and causing them to fold, they are making a mathematical mistake vs your exact hand. This is a. Use this strategy when you are short stacked and have 12 big blinds or less. But because that hand is very difficult to play postflop, it is still better to just fold the hand preflop. If it’s profitable to limp with a hand pre-flop, it’s generally more profitable to raise in order to put pressure on the blinds. Here are the key takeaways when thinking about whether a hand should be folded preflop: Pot odds should mostly be ignored unless we are facing an all-in scenario (or very close to it). Call up to 20xbb if somebody raises beforehand or re-raises you. Yes, you should fold pocket kings preflop on a few rare occasions with 100 big blind stack sizes in a full ring poker game versus a 4Bet when all of the action is in early position. So yes, you need to learn how to fold aces post flop. Pay attention to preflop charts. It's an easy fold; you lose nothing. Two, you don't need to play any hands like a 7-2. Below are two simulations that show the tightest range an opponent can shove with preflop that would be >50% equity for the caller. AK is a monster hand I love to get dealt, but I've folded AK preflop many times before. . The rule about folding A-K to two or more raises isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. One, when you get pocket Aces, you pound your opposition with a pre-flop raise otherwise everyone and their brother gets to play the hand and. 1. Your 3bet defense options are to either fold, call or re-raise 4bet (if the 3bet was not an all-in shove). Fold preflop. Defending vs 4bets Defending vs 5bets General Summary – When to Fold Preflop 1. Open limping preflop is most often done by weak players who feel that their hand isn't strong enough for a raise but can't quite bring themselves to fold it. To steal the Blinds. It holds the potential to make four nut straights, the only two card combination to be able to do that, and it. folds to hj, Hero raises to $2. The flop is the most important of the four because it almost always defines how the hand progresses. So you can float c-bets more often and look to bluff on scare cards. Your still beating ak and queens and that line doesn’t really scream aces to me. In Rush & Cash Hold’em, you can select the range of hole cards that you do not wish to play from a certain position, and these hands will be folded automatically. And in adjusting to when there is 10 people at a table vs 6. The core concept is that hand strength in poker is relative, not absolute. Mar 4, 2021. Floptimal organizes computer-generated information on poker strategy into fast, lovely, interactive visualizations. Chips. When you plug the numbers in, you get: RFE = 3 / 3+1. While postflop 4-bets are possible, this article focuses exclusively on preflop 4-betting. Preflop . October 26, 2022 0 comments. You can be a little wider out of the BB but not too crazy. Although preflop play is the simplest aspect of any poker game, it's not as easy as it sounds. If you never 4-bet light when facing a 3-bet preflop, it will be very profitable for your opponent to continually 3-bet you preflop. Chips. KK is an insta fold here. The current pot is $75. The best way to approach RFI is to pick a range of hands which you believe is strongBy folding most of the time and focusing on playing well the few hands you play, you’ll be better able to make money in the long run. That. A reg or nit shoves 100bb utg+3. These charts are designed to be used when players are short-stacked, because players are in a “push-fold” mode: their preflop decisions are limited to “pushing” all-in or folding. Preflop advice and 6 postflop tips for playing ace-queen offsuit in cash game poker. Fold to 3-bet preflop out of position (F3B OOP) ; Folded to cbet on flop in 3-bet+ pot (FCB_3) ; 4-bet preflop (4B). Villain jams small blind with KQo. Hence, you have no reads on the players. Although it is still pretty rare. If you had won the hand, maybe you would have become the new chip leader with a high chance to win or take second place rather than just min-cash. A♦7♥ 3♠. I would love to say you should Never fold KK preflop but sadly I can not as I have fold AA preflop before. thatguy6793 Legend. You can plug this leak by never calling in multiway preflop situations with hands that can't make the nuts often. Raising frequently. AK falls within both the 4-betting and calling ranges. The Small Blind position is between the Button and the Big Blind and is usually half of the Big Blind. When this happens, there is the likelihood that they will fold. For instance, you might want to give up the AK Preflop and fold when your opponent is a tight 3bets player. If you’re folding your 4bet bluffs but also hands like say ak and qq you’re just completely overfolding your range. Even so, you should always be looking to get as many chips as possible into the pot before the flop with aces regardless of how many other players are showing. All depends on the positions and types of players at your table but today ranges are much wider then in the past. Bet pretty large (55-80% pot) on wet, dynamic board textures. Getting too attached to a hand in certain situations can spell disaster, as the pots can escalate dramatically after preflop play. com When it comes to folding post-flop, as well as in pre-flop, having a pocket pair in your hand very often decreases your playability and it makes you want to fold your hand more often if you can’t use it as a bluff because you’re holding blockers. The stack-to-pot ratio should influence your bet size. But in fact, preflop strategy is the most fundamental strategy you should master if you want to be a winner in poker. Against limpers who will limp-fold preflop you can profitably raise their limp with any two cards until they or other players start playing back at you. The amount of the time that. For example, if the in the pot is only $7, and you raise preflop by $300, it is highly likely that everyone else will fold, leaving you with a small profit. It is obviously just super easy to exploit players who fold kings preflop but let's say I play against a 10/8 nit with a 1 % 3bet stat and he 4bets me when I have KK. If you limp, they get to realize a large part of their equity by seeing a flop. 9% of the time though never AA or KK even against a nit and it would take my BI or im on a bubble. a) You have immediate fold equity when betting the flop – your opponent might just give up right there vs your bet and you win the hand. The best way to approach RFI is to pick a range of hands which you believe is strong Without folding, you will be throwing good money after bad, chasing draws that are highly unlikely to come in. Preflop in poker is no different. 6. With the (BET / FOLD) hands you make a continuation bet, but if you are raised or if the opponent bets before you, you fold your cards. In other words, fold hands that aren't high pocket pairs and/or don't have nut flush draws. So its harder to fold QQ under most of the circumstances. Thinking player who needs people to know he’s a smart guy. 2. On rare occasions, you do sometimes fold aces preflop in PLO. There is no such bucket as “good enough to limp but not good enough to raise”. Since your hand is only Q high it’s very unlikely that your hand will win in a showdown. Even if your preflop strategy is to fold, it’s a good strategy if you have a weak hand. g. Look, in all honesty, preflop poker is actually the easiest part of the game. Pretty normal 1/2 table (MGM Detroit), about $300 stacks effective, I open to $11 UTG+1, LJ (fairly reasonable reg) 3-bets to $25, folds back around to me. folds to hj, Hero raises to $2. ”. 19% - 320 / (740 + 320) - or about 2:1. Indeed, this is a primary factor in why we added push-fold charts to the Red Chip Poker GTO Ranges app. But knowing which action to take. These hands might make you hesitant to fold, but in reality, your chance to win is fairly small and they lose on average. So don't play hands like these. A 1% range is AA and KK. This can lead to even better preflop bluffing opportunities, especially when you find players who are folding too often against the extra aggression. Note that your "effective stack size" means the smaller of your stack, versus the largest stack of your. Preflop Calling Ranges. Here are experienced players who know that correct answer how to play AK correctly depends on the opponent’s tendencies, your position, and stack size. Preflop the play is standard. You can check if it is checked to you. Playing Before The Flop. The majority of the time you will be playing post-flop out of position as a short stack is when you call a preflop raise from the blinds. Sure they are the best starting hand, but post flop they are usually just a one pair hand. A limp is an act of placing the minimum bet that is required to stay in a hand. Raising & Folding Low Pocket Pairs First In. There is one hand still haunts me. For example, take a situation where you open queens from under the gun, get three bet by a nit, you four. Pocket Sevens are a very strong starting hand, falling within the top 6-7% of all starting hands. A precise and easy to use visual representation of GTO preflop ranges for 4 and 5 card Pot Limit Omaha. On a 2d you decide for some reason not to bluff. With the (CHECK / FOLD) hands you check, and if the opponent bets, you fold. The most important takeaway about preflop strategies is that you should have a strategy in place. Push/Fold is a common strategy used in tournaments in which you either go all-in preflop or fold. PLO8 preflop limp calls average about 80 to 85% , AAAA is quite literally the thirteenth worst hand you can have out of about 15000 preflop hands, and even the most mouth breathing of opponents aren't. Folding simply means to let go of your cards and surrender the pot to another player. When you’re not the first player to enter the pot, re-raise (3-bet) most of the time when you decide to play a hand. Just like having a standard strategy for the button, it is also helpful to have a plan. It occurs after the hole cards have been dealt and before the flop is dealt. Double straddle pot: 2_5_10_20All call 20usd and Villian at MP (effective 1500usd) makes it 120usdHero at CO raises to 360usd with KK (Eff. And flop texture is very important when considering a continuation bet in Texas Holdem Poker. 72% of the time you should never do it!But there is always that ONE exception in poke. Tournament poker preflop is probably the most important thing to study since much of the mid-late level play is very preflop centered. Should I really fold ?A continuation bet, or simply put a c-bet, is a bet made by the last preflop aggressor. g. Connected – The cards are close together in terms of rank but aren’t necessarily the same suits. 1200usd). The remaining 40% are mostly calls. Learn More. Feb 3, 2008. Hand Strength: The stronger your hand is, the stronger your inclination to raise preflop. RAISE: bet more than the player who raised 3. You raise to $70, he pushes all in. The ability to drop a strong AK hand on the. 5% of a seat). A-K is perhaps the most overplayed hand in a poker – overplayed in the sense that it’s overvalued by many players, leading them to commit way too many of their chips in what begins as or evolves into a hopeless cause. Deciding when to fold Ace-King (A-K) preflop in Texas Hold’em is a nuanced. Thus you can more reliably play these hands profitably to a raise than hands like A-To. 5 Quick Guidelines for Flop Defense. This generally translates to having a higher 3-bet percentage when possible. You’d either be chopping or behind – but even then, you’re blocking all combos of KK except one). Because of your strong hand and likelihood to win, your opponent might fold. pugglebutt914 • 1 yr. This makes sense because the preflop raiser bets bigger (66% of the pot) on this flop, which is accompanied by a more polarized range. When you are sitting preflop and deciding on entering a raised pot by cold calling, you are doing so because you have a playable hand that doesn’t have the characteristics for 3-betting and is too strong to fold. Finally, I want to address this common worry: if I raise too high with a good hand preflop I think most players will fold. Before the flop is where it all starts; you are dealt your cards and you are able to make. Gathy limps holding A♣ Q ♦ and Reixack checks the 2 ♦ 5 ♥ in the BB with a 20bb (M8) stack.