Mad Genius of Poker

I read an article from a poker magazine at the casino. Mike Cairo said in effect that we should first analyze Our hands for a reason to fold. Not a reason to play.

This is a direct difference from an aggresive mindset but I have been using this piece of advice to focus my aggression. If I dont fold then I can safely focus on calling or raising depending on the situation.

Maybe everyone can chime in for good reasons to fold.

I will start it off by saying folding in the small blind unless holding monster hands is almost allways a good fold.

I'd advise an amateur to look for reasons to fold.
A lot of amateurs look for reasons to play, and thereby play too many hands or get into sticky situations. Thinking like, "Maybe I'll flop two pair" or "Maybe my A/4 will flop an Ace" gets you in trouble. But if you think "I'll only win if I make two pair, which isn't likely" or "If my Ace pairs here I'll only be able to play for a big pot if an opponent has an Ace with a bigger kicker" you stay alive.

The thing is, there are always reasons to play. Any hand can flop a full house. What keeps you from doing so are the bad things, like not getting the right odds.

I have to agree, you should always look for a reason to fold. If you don't feel that you can play with what you have then fold.

As an aggressive player, I love letting people find a reason to fold

Looking for a reason to fold is very important and it can save you from putting yourself in allot of borderline situations. At the same time you have to know when to go with a hand. If you think you have the best hand then playing aggressively is essential. There's a fine line between playing tight and getting pushed around. In tough spots go with what you know about the player and the situation to try and put the pieces together.

...and you are the reason why I try to find a reason to play you...

Caro also said "your job? is to make the good decisions at the table which means always consider folding.

it does not sound right to me, especially in micros where people bet anything.

if i am looking for a reason to fold i will always go to showdown with only the nuts, even so, this guy, playing vs the real me would lose loads of money, and i am only a half decent microstakes grinder.

Most casinos carry Poker Player Magazine, so I'm assuming that's where you read Mike Caro's article. If that's indeed the case, you also have to consider what he says in the context of all his other articles, which are a series.

You can get a free online subscription to PPM online...just do the google thing. If you don't want to subscribe, you can read the current issue as well as check out the archives.

Thanks Lark,
I dont allways find the mag or make it to the casino to get one.

I seriously need to heed this advice, though. =(

When I start getting tired, impatient, etc I start playing hands like K2s because I figure, "I can hit a lot of monsters with it!!" Which is just terrible, terrible.

I really find this advice useful. Thank you for sharing. I think consistent poker pays off more so in the long run, than playing non-consistently and gambling your chips away. If I think back to how many times folding garbage would have won me a substantial amount of money, it's only happened a few times. I find it somewhat amusing when I hear people groan about folding garbage after the board pairs something that they had thrown away. I mean, seriously? If they played every hand they were dealt, by the time they won, it would only amount to half of how much they've gambled away trying to "get lucky" on the flop.

Which reminds me of the last time I had played poker at one of the casinos that I go to. This guy was playing anything and everything, raising with 2/4 preflop, and betting it down to the river just to catch two pair and take down a reasonably sized pot. Which was somewhat impressive...at first. Until he lost more than half his chip stack in the same amount of time, playing with the same technique.

So this style can pay off for some people, but I question whether it pays off in the long run. I think there comes a point when a player is pushing their luck and has to make the decision to slow down a bit.

This could have saved me a lot of dough if I had thought this way from the outset.

I can understand that..if u can see several reasons to fold, and several reasons to call, i think fold is by farthe best option..you cant win a tourney in one hand..you can defintitly lose a tourney in one hand...that my opinion...