If you fold your hand in poker, you lay down your cards and stop playing the hand. A fold can happen at any point in the play when it is your turn to act. Folding in poker means you are out for that hand. You no longer will have any claim on the pot and you won't be required to put more money into the pot for that hand. The best idea would be to raise some of your strongest hands and some of your weakest ones. If you have very tight competition who are folding a lot, this will increase your EV, and you can still shove everything in the middle. That being said, without specific reads, using push fold only Texas Holdem strategy is often the best option. A table with an overview of the best starting poker hands in Texas Hold'em. When you are still learning, it’s a good idea to play your poker hands according to the graph below. This will keep you safe most of the rounds, but it does mean you are folding a lot of your hands. Like any other poker game, you need to have an understanding of when to fold to get more cash or to reduce your losses while in the game. There are two positions in the poker game that are considered to be of significance while folding, and they include at starting hand and at the river. In the starting hands of Texas Holdem, there are those hands that you must fold at all times, you should never fold some and there are those that can be folded at different times in the game.

1. What Poker Hands To Fold What To Play
2. What Poker Hands To Fold Forward
3. What Poker Hands Should You Fold
4. What Poker Hands To Fold Cards

Introduction to Folding

Knowing what hands to fold in poker doesn’t come easy to most players. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably concerned that you play too many hands, call too many raises speculatively or on the contrary, play too tight and need some guidance. We can’t all play like Phil Ivey or Tom Dwan and expect play a wide range of hands profitably. This article will give a basic guide on what hands to fold in poker.

What Poker Hands To Fold What To Play

Playing Situations, Not Just Cards

Before I get into the hand groups you should be folding. Let me preface it by saying that, as your experience, table awareness and proficiency in Texas Holdem develops, you will often be looking for profitable situations instead of just playing solid poker hands. This is something I always tell players I mentor but this article is designed to help those of you who are having difficulty with pre flop hand selection and want some general advice on what hands to fold in poker.

Ace Rag

Ace rag is almost definitely the most overplayed and overrated hand in Texas Holdem. Even professionals will occasionally overplay the ace if they’ve been dealt junk for hours. The truth is, unless you are in position or shorthanded, these hands are unlikely to generate you much money or help build your stack much. They don’t play particularly well post flop and you are unlikely to extract 3 streets of value if you make top pair. Sometimes when you think you will, you end up finding yourself outkicked.

Low Paint Cards

This may surprise you but the Queen Jack and King Jack hands are not as powerful as you think. Granted, you have two paint cards and have the opportunity to make straights. But, if you are calling raises with these hands, particularly against early position open raises, you are going to find yourself outkicked or against a higher pair. If a strong player is opening from under the gun and you are tempted to play Queen Jack from the small blind, think again. The range of hands you are likely to be up against have Queen Jack in bad shape. To make this clearer, if you are against an Ace Jack, Ace Queen or King Queen, you are approx. 25% to win the hand in a showdown. Let’s also not forget you do not have the pre flop lead.

Low Connectors

Hands like 4-5, 6-7 and 3-4 are hands to fold in poker. I make a distinction from suited as they play much better.The offsuit low connectors are unlikely to help your ROI. You may have seen some professionals call raises on High Stakes Poker with these hands. That doesn’t mean they were right to and it doesn’t mean you should. Unless you make a hand stronger than one pair, you are unlikely to feel secure with low connectors so just throw them away.

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Mucking is an often misunderstood part of poker. Knowing the definition and when it is both appropriate and strategically correct to muck is an important part of the game. I have researched every angle of the subject of mucking and decided to pass along my findings to you.

What is a muck in poker? The word muck can be used as a noun or a verb. As a noun, the muck refers to the pile of discarded cards lying on the table. As a verb, mucking means to fold your hand. Most often, the word is used at the end of a hand when a player is faced with a decision on whether to show his cards or “muck” them.

Simply understanding the concept of mucking in poker is one thing. Knowing how to use that information is another. To learn more about how to use the poker muck rules to your advantage at the table, read on.

What Poker Hands To Fold Forward

Poker Muck Rules

At face value, mucking poker hands seems like a fairly straightforward concept. Even so, there are a few rules about mucking that every poker player should know:

1. The muck is a one-way street: Once your cards even touch the muck, your hand is dead and cannot win. Make sure you are 100% sure you are folding before you throw those cards into the muck. Never EVER reach your hand into the muck to try to retrieve cards. This is a serious breach of the rules.
2. Muck your hand correctly: The correct way to muck is to place your cards down in front of the dealer, not chuck them across the table haphazardly. Eventually, you will turn one or more cards up and annoy everyone at the table.
3. Do not muck your hand out of turn: or let anyone know you plan to fold since this is a breach of both the rules and etiquette. We don’t want to unfairly give one or more players this type of information. Make sure you learn the showdown rules of poker so you know when to muck.
4. Beginners should never muck their hand on the river: Even experienced players sometimes misread their cards. Throwing away the winning hand, even in a small pot, is extremely frustrating.

What Is Considered a Muck in Poker?

Mucking is the same as folding. If you place your cards on the discard pile or slide your cards toward the dealer, your hand is said to be mucked and is dead for the rest of the current hand.

Your hand can also be mucked automatically if your time bank runs out in online poker or someone calls the clock on you and you run out of time in live poker.

Can I Set My Cards down Again Once I Pick Them Up?

If you pick your cards up and then place them in front of you, that is not considered a muck. In fact, you can pick your cards up and set them down as many times as you like, as long as you do not verbally declare that you are folding or touch your cards to the discard pile.

If the Dealer Deals One of My Cards to the Wrong Person, Is It Mucked?

If the dealer accidentally gives your card to the wrong player, you should announce it immediately. If it is obvious which card was dealt to the other player, a correction can be made and the card shifted to you. However, if the other player mixed it with his other card or cards or took a look at it, the card is dead.

If you are in the blinds a misdeal would be declared and the hand restarted. If you are not in the blinds and your card is declared dead, then it would be given back to the dealer and used as the burn card for the flop.

When Can You Muck Your Hand in Poker

On every betting round you must follow the correct order of play and wait until the action is on you before you can fold or muck your hand. Showdown is the only time that a player may muck his or her hand out of turn.

When Are Your Cards Considered Mucked

There are three instances that your cards can be considered automatically mucked:

1. You push your hand to the dealer
2. Your cards touch the discards already mucked
3. You verbally announce that you fold

Always remember, if you are in doubt about the local muck rules it is okay to ask the dealer or even the floor.

What If Someone Mucks out of Turn

If someone mucks out of turn there is no automatic penalty given to that player. However, except for at showdown, it is still a breach of poker etiquette to either muck your hand or telegraph that you are folding before the action is on you.

Players who continuously fold out of turn and become disruptive to the table for doing so, may be given a penalty by the dealer or floor at their discretion.

Can You Ever Ask to See Mucked Cards?

At showdown, any player who was dealt into a particular hand can ask to be shown any hand that was called, even if was thrown into the muck. However, this is known to be in bad form and is looked at as being extremely bad etiquette.

The only time you should ever remotely consider asking the dealer to flip over a mucked hand is if it was a huge pot and you suspect cheating or collusion.

Mucking Strategy – Deciding When to Muck or Show

First off, if you are a beginner you should always flip your hand over at showdown. Staying involved mentally all the way until the completion of the hand is important in the learning process. Always showing also prevents you from ever misreading your hand and folding the winner.

On the other hand, advanced players should never show losing cards without a very good reason. Poker is a game of information and the less you can give away for free, the better.

Look Before You Muck

To avoid silly errors, I advise getting in the habit of taking one last peek at your cards before folding. This prevents you from ever accidentally folding the winner. Even the best misread their cards from time to time.

How to Muck Your Hand Properly

Folding your cards is no time to get fancy. Just about every so-called “serious” player out there seems to want to impress everyone with their fancy mucking technique. Don’t be that person.

Fold your cards correctly by placing them face down in a neat little stack and quickly sliding them to the dealer. Dramatic, time-consuming, folding techniques will only slow down the action and actually hurt your hourly rate.

What Poker Hands Should You Fold

Folding in poker is similar to investing money. Do it often and soon. You especially want to fold your hand quickly if you likely have the best hand. One of the worst things that can happen is getting accused of slow rolling at the poker table.

Protecting Your Hand

If your intention is to keep your hand live then you should always protect your hand. Either purchase a decent card protector or place a low denomination chip on top of your cards. Otherwise, the dealer might accidentally muck your cards. This happened in a huge WSOP hand a few years ago, as shown in the following video.

Mucked Cards Shown in Online Poker

What Poker Hands To Fold Cards

Some poker sites allow for mucked cards to be shown in the hand histories of the site whether you have “auto muck” clicked or not. This is a feature added to combat issues with cheating or collusion.

I recommend using this information to your advantage when reviewing your play in your preferred tracking software program. You can see exactly what your opponents do in particular situations and gain and, as a result, optimize your lines.

Related Questions

In Online Poker What Is Auto Muck? Many online poker sites have a feature where you can automatically muck losing hands at showdown. I recommend using this feature if the site you play on offers it. Not only does it speed up play, but it ensures that your hand gets mucked without giving away unnecessary information.

What is a dead hand in poker? A player’s hand is considered dead when it can no longer win the current hand. Numerous actions can lead to hand being declared dead.

What are the nuts in poker? The nuts in poker means the best hand possible on the current street. Quite often, the nuts on the flop will be different than the nuts on the turn or river.

Final Thoughts

Just like any other part of learning poker, understanding mucking rules is just one small piece of the puzzle towards making a person a complete player. While mastering strategy and tactics lead to profit, mastering the basics of gameplay is also important.

Every little thing you do in poker leads to maximizing your profit. Isn’t that what the game is all about?