"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I fold and I understand." -Confucius
I have been on a 4 month MTT downswing, and it is much easier to start playing sloppy or less than your A game, during an extended bad run. In order to avoid this, I am constantly finding areas in my game to improve upon. This week, I have been concentrating on the Art of Folding.
Folding is an art...one that can be fine-tuned and cultivated with experience, conscious awareness and opponent attentiveness.
Because I mean.. let's face it...We don't do it enough now do we? Nope! We should do it more right? Yup! So then what the hell is the d*** obsession with not letting a hand go, even when you are 99.9% certain you are beat!!!
What's with chasing to the turn and river, when you dont have the right odds, or enough outs to justify your play? And how about the big payoff bet on the river, after you have missed your draw and made a pair, and somehow convince yourself that your pair is possibly good, and even if it isn't there's too much in the middle to fold?
How about when every last brain cell is screaming to fold... and your timer is timing down.. and somehow your hand reflexively (probably not a word) moves the mouse over the call button and clicks...just hoping... and praying... that every last braincell is wrong =
Our games can improve drastically if we focus on this one concept in detail and engrain in our impressionable poker minds that oftentimes folding a "great" hand, because we are beat, takes as much skill as calling with a "weak" hand and being right...
I beat myself up when I call with a hand, knowing I have the loser... this constant attention re-directs that weakness, and next time I am more aware before I make a bad call... Consistently doing this over the past year, has made a lot of decisions second nature now. I am able to act quicker and fold more accurately...
A great deal of success in no limit is reading the opponent...figuring out how they think...and even more important...figuring out how they think you think, and using it against them... This includes knowing what to do to get your opponent to fold...knowing when you can get them to fold and when you cant.. and knowing when to fold yourself.
So I will leave you with Rexy's Tips on Folding before I enter the bloodbath that is SUnday Poker :
If your first instinct is that you are beat...then the majority of the time, YOU ARE!
If your first instinct is that the opposing player's play doesn't make sense, and it appears he is trying to push you off your the hand? Then He IS!
Watch betting patterns...whether you are involved in a hand or not, and extract solid information about that particular player's betting patterns...TAKE A NOTE!
If you are not sure about your hand, and want to get to a showdown...play lowball, keep the pot small, so you do not allow another to push you off your hand. Instead of your bet, his push, and your Wrong call or even Wrong fold, you can go into check call mode, and make a decision for a smaller expenditure of chips.
An overbet most often times means that the player does not want you around, because they either have air bubbles or a draw...(an exception to this rule are skilled players who will purposefully overbet to trap you into calling....always know your opponent and their respective Skill Level)
WHEN IN DOUBT...GET OUT!
The most important tip from the above list is the first one. The more you play, the more you will develop this inherent instinct we all have. This instinct lays dormant in most players, because they are not in tune to their intuitive self. Our gut instinct is often the correct instinct...regarding all matters in life, so why should poker be any different? It isn't!!! Cultivating this instinct will not only sharpen your folding skills, but will catapult your ability to make great reads where your hand IS good! You will start making sick calls, along with sick folds...and you will be an intimidating force at the tables.
Sunday Poker here I come :)
Sweet Sunday for YOU and Me....best of luck at the tables... <3>
