Not every hand is playable and not every strong hand is a winner
For many Texas Hold’em players, the action of folding equals losing. But the truth is that knowing when and how to fold during a hand can become a useful skill. Most poker players fall in one of these two categories: players who fold too often and players who rarely fold. But the kind of player you want to become is one who learns to fold the ideal number of times and, on top of that, a player that can keep his continuance frequencies and ranges during each hand right on track.
Folding too much is not ideal. Folding is something you do when facing certain situations, and those situations don’t happen as often as most players would assume. Ultimately, most players end up having massive folding frequencies.
The most common scenario in which players fold the most is when bets or raises occur on the flop or turn. Before folding, you must consider that even against a strong pair, or even two, that hand still has some equity and a real chance of winning the pot. But folding will automatically take that winning chance to 0% and there will be nothing else to do.
In the opposite case, in which a player is finding himself not folding enough, they usually participate only when they have premium winning hands. Here, you would be folding both too often and too early during poker hands. These players, nevertheless, become an easy target for good poker players to attack, as it can be easier to bluff and put pressure on the players to win the pots.
In essence, the goal should be to reach a safe middle. A good rule of thumb is that if you call on one street, you should continue on the next one. If you follow this rule, it will mean that you will be folding around 30% of the time. Of course, this percentage can vary depending on bad cards or actions that can increase or decrease that folding frequency.
