Poker Math: Using and Capitalizing on Fold Equity

[Vorem]

good article, many often forget that for a fold equity you need a stack of at least 15 bb

 

[makisaa]

Fold equity is a part of the maths of the game. bluff is a tool that can be very valuable for increasing the fold equities against our opponents in the game!

 

[Syltan]

After reading this article, I concluded that everything depends on the statistics, what do people in which there is no auxiliary software, or it does not work on less popular poker rooms. You can say Fold equity is a mathematical justification for bluffing)

 

[chicopaw]

i agree with what boz said earlier here,
,it all comes down to one's ability to figure out villain's range of hands based on betting pattern, general behavior at the table and other info regarding the particular player.
Knowing the players at the table and the ones ur betting against really needs ur full attention and then with proper stats you can clearly make a move with better chances of winning the pot

 

[dragunovich]

this topic in poker is very important .. knowing how to use fold equity in my opinion will help you earn money .. knowing when there are great chances that your opponent will fold, will allow you to exploit your weaknesses and collect more chips .. fold equity is one of the bases of pro play.

 

[redboy23]

Thank you for sharing such valuable information.

I have been practicing most spots listed in the article but use the double and triple barrel very sparingly.

There is so much to learn and a wide range of skills to practice. This is what makes poker such an exciting game !

Keep sharing everyone - love it here!

 

[danoscar]

Danoscar - Fold Equity and Pot Equity

Fold Equity is very important when short stacked. To be familiar with a person's strategy, be short stacked with a decent hand and know they will usually fold with a 3bet is very important to my game.
Pot Equity is important to me especially when in late position, have a decent hand and am faced with decent odds.
Both are invaluable strategies.

 

[redboy23]

Me again,

I responded to this article before because it grabbed my attention, and as luck would have it - as part of a forum challenge, I have decided to give a response from a different angle.

Please note that I am an intermediate player and feel free to correct me on any misunderstanding that I may have.

Here goes:

A wonderful topic here and one that I subscribe to and practice when I play. It is really amazing how many chips you pick up in a tournament without getting to the turn or river. Tight-aggressive style of play earns you respect at the table and increases the chances of villain folding against hero. According to my sharkscope statstics, 70% of the hand I play, I bet a standard 3 x BB bet when entering a hand and c-bet almost 100% of the time. Of course to put this in perspective I play only about 25% - 30% of the hands dealt to me. Very important to note that 82/110 and 76/104 times I won the hand or folded without seeing a flop. Further to this, I won 6/28 hands (21%) without getting to the river. One out of every 5 hands played, I got some kind of equity.
These are my stats from 2 random $.10 (cent) tournaments which I placed 4th, could not find my 1st place stats ☹ (was probably too excited and forgot to e-mail hand history):

You finished in 4th place (eliminated at hand #200232357029).

104 hands played and saw flop:
- 6 times out of 16 while in small blind (38%)
- 9 times out of 15 while in big blind (60%)
- 13 times out of 73 in other positions (18%)
- a total of 28 times out of 104 (27%)

Pots won at showdown - 14 out of 17 (82%)
Pots won without showdown – 6
You finished in 4th place (eliminated at hand #200238807916).

110 hands played and saw flop:
- 7 times out of 15 while in small blind (47%)
- 10 times out of 17 while in big blind (59%)
- 11 times out of 78 in other positions (14%)
- a total of 28 times out of 110 (25%)

Pots won at showdown - 14 out of 19 (74%)
Pots won without showdown - 6

Fold equity – total percentage that villain must fold to make bluffs, c-bets or semi-bluffs profitable or worth it. I usually bet half of the pot when I attempt any of the above. This meant that villain needs to fold at least one out of every three attempts – 33% to make my bets worthwhile or profitable to some extent. Attached are some fold equity percentages for other pot sizes:


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qvHO1PAzPXuMuSM1nAlrkElqxqRrMiik

Choose one sizing for a tournament and track the number of times which villain folds. This may vary from one tournament or ring table to the next but well worth the time. Then you can choose the sizing that works best.
I have loads of fun applying this and encourage every beginning – intermediate player to spend some time learning and practicing capitalizing on their fold equity.

 

[Inequitas]

Fold equity

Fold equity and how to capitalize on it...

Thank You Tammy This Article Is As Awesome as you are...

I've enjoyed reading it and gather or it seems I've been incorporating Fold equity and capitalizing on it already with out realizing but without using a HUD...

Yes i Have noticed "nothing is static in poker so fold equity can be increased or decreased based on almost everything" keeping notes are helpful haha...

Its easy to be caught out raising to much though and that has bitten me in the butt a few times...

Your Link Has Been Instructive, informative and a little intuitive... Poker Fold Equity

Thank You again...

 

[Andrew Popov]

Pure poker math doesn't work. If it were otherwise, we would have long played exclusively against computer programs - bots.
Understanding the Fold equity is necessary for a successful game, but a lot of basic data is necessary for the calculation, including reliable statistics on the player, his behavior in various situations and ranges of the game. And even in this case, correctly calculated fold equity does not guarantee anything, but it only increases your chances of picking up the pot without a draw or winning at the opening of cards. Just chances, not the end result.

 

[Ventoman777]

I rarely use this term, but I often make a fortune thanks to fold equity. But Fold equity is not the main component of poker mathematics, because it is not always used. In situations where you do not bet, generally equals zero. However, if we are talking about situations when you need to make a semi-bluff, waiting for the last card for a draw, this is the component that will complement your overall score and tell you that in this situation you are doing the right thing in the long term.

 

[m0t22]

Congratulations on one more lovely topic and explictibamvo, a didactic method.

I believe that this term is relevant, because even if you minimize your mistakes and maximize your profits by generating fold equity, who will be losing?
Nowadays most players think that aggressiveness will work against all players, and end up abusing that term and even its range.

 

[Paya_31]

Hi, very good article, fold equity is something new for me, so I try to apply it in my game. Although I have some idea about it, is that to apply must have a good read of opponents, I hope to improve my game with the help they give us in Cardschat. regards

 

[Rijckenborg]

It is very nice when opponent folds to my bet at the river when the pot is very big.
But sometimes I lose pot value when betting too much if they fold.

 

[king11682]

If we apply well the fold equity we can win many hands, you have to have a good amount of chips to make a big bet and usually with a couple of good cards and sometimes a semibluff

 

[Miguel Chacon]

Excellent article I think I always use this calculation but only by knowing the player who is more likely to fold to a Cbet and who holds to a second or third barrel I've learned now with this article the Origin and the why of this statistic I understand it better I know this I'll be using it from NL10 +

thanks once again Tammy!

 

[shanest]

Great read. It's a concept that took me a while to master. I would cbet multiway on boards where i will never have fold equity (wet connected boards) and burn money.
Great stuff

 

[sergik1992]

Thank you for as always good and qualitative article. Using of fold equity is one of my favorite instruments a long time ago. I understood this theme very fast and after installing HM2 I try to exploit my opponents as much as possible. I think, that successful poker is impossible today without understanding fold equity. So, if the material in this article is new for you, please, pay your attention to studying all paragraphs here It helps to improve your game and your results!

 

[Anders1616]

Very interesting article.
I don't recall that i ever heard about, how to use fold equity, so it is all new to me.

 

[Rosxana13]

Excellent article as usual I think this Fold equity is putting in numbers and facts the perception you have about your opponent sometime with 20 or 30 hands with one person you can see their style just by perception adn knowing if he/she will fold against your Cbet, 2nd barrel or 3rd barrel... but of course when you're in a more advanced level in poker and playing against good player you always have fold equity in mind good to learn more about it and how it works...

Awesome Tammy thanks !

 

[jingler]

I think to use FOLD EQUITY is possible in unlimited games. For example, to use such a strategy in limit hold'em is impractical because of the structure of bets. You just can't bet enough to get your opponent to fold in most cases.
I use fold equity intuitively, without resorting to calculations and complex formulas

 

[johnny tigre]

Wow, this is very helpful, i hope i can learn from this Tammy.
Thanks so much.

 

[AvovchikA]

Normal article. I understand everything, but I knew it before. For me, it is strange to see it apart from the rest of poker mathematics.

 

[weezy1312]

Thats why you need a HUD because you cant follow all table 3 bets , fold to 3 bets vpip and use all details later when needed to your advantage , as for the fold equity , people use it always but maybe they dont know about it , when they "bet to protect their hand " theyre actually giving the opponent high fold equity to push them out of the hand and make their call mathematically wrong but still it depends of how good/bad is your opponent and your image in the table if you are playing too loose that bet wouldnt have the same effect for sure.

 

[zam220]

Good article,Thanks !I think that every poker player should know the fold equity,it will help to reduce the risk of losses !This is very important at the late stage of the tournament !