How to fold?

Hey all,

Over the past week, I have experienced many bad beats on monster hands (AA, KK). I consider AK a drawing hand...

How do you all come up with the courage to fold a set of AA's when the board flops a flush for the other guy? Do you ever believe them? Think about how rare it is to flop a flush in the first place...and then find out the guy called your preflop raise with rags, but suited...

I believe the biggest leak in my game is getting away from AA or KK, especially when I hit the flop. When the other guy or guys are betting like crazy, I never want to believe them. I keep thinking they are trying to push me off a winning hand, and sometimes, they are.

Any "tells" or secrets?

Thanks!

the tells are in your history with the player.

If you don't have much history, I think you have to pay a set of aces on a monotone board.

It does really depend on the dynamic of the table though.

This is it exactly -- it depends a lot on several factors whether you should be willing to bet, fold, call, or check your excellent but non-nut hands.

For example, with your situation of your AA or KK overpair meeting lots of resistance on the flop:

* Consider villain. Is villain crazy loose, nittiest of nits, or somewhere inbetween? Is villain prone to bluffing? Is villain more prone to slowplaying a monster? Is villain good at mixing it up and confusing you? Knowing your villain is a key element to know what to do in these spots -- and you won't always get it right, but at least you will begin to able to get a sense of when you are likely ahead and when you are likely behind.

* Consider your own table image. Have you been playing and raising a ton of pots? Have you been taking down pots without showdown? If people consider you to be fairly loose-aggro, you will begin to see more resistance which can be tricky unless you have good reads on your opponents. This sometimes happens too even if you're playing TAG but are just getting great hands in quick succession.

* Consider position. Villain is usually less likely to play random cards out of position. If it's coming from late position or the blinds, villain usually has a slightly wider range.

* Consider how deep your stacks are. For example, if you are heads up and you or villain have 50BB or less, you can usually play these situations much more aggressively. If you have 200+BB, you will want to generally approach more cautiously.

* With no reads, consider the stakes. Players at 2NL are generally going to be quite a bit spewier and non-thinking than players at 100NL. This is not a hard and fast rule though. However, with no reads it's usually easier to get your AA or KK overpair in at 2NL than in higher stakes because against the average villain you are probably ahead of their range.

Thinking about the above should help a lot in these situations. Once you are able to consider the above, you can then do some equity calculations to give you an idea of what the best move is in a particular situation. With this in mind, given your stack size, how much is in the pot, and your odds of sucking out, sometimes getting it in as dog is actually the right move.

If you hit a set of aces or kings, you really don't want to be getting away from that too often. You are still going to be ahead of most of any opponents range, even if the board has three to a flush or straight.

if u hit kkk aaa on the flop and the board looks like its gunna flush up,,,make em pay with drawing flush hands an straights ,,bang em all in

yea this is by far the hardest thing for me to do also..

I am never folding a set of Aces on the flop if he has hit his flush or straight good for him he has stacked me!(super deep stacks may be different)

Agreed!

thats usually my downfall I cant backdown because I always think the other player is bluffing and I usually push all in and fail!