Fold when continuing costs more than your hand is likely to win back. Before the flop that depends on your cards and your seat at the table. After the flop it is a comparison between the price of a call and your chance of winning, adjusted for what your opponent is likely to hold. This guide works through each street with real numbers and a hand played from start to finish.
In short
- Never fold when you can check for free.
- Fold when your chance of winning is below the price of the call.
- Folding too often is a leak too: it lets opponents bluff you.
What happens when you fold
Folding means giving up your cards and any claim to the pot. The chips you have already put in stay in the pot, and you sit out the rest of the hand. Online you click Fold; in a live game you push your cards face down towards the dealer. You will also hear it called mucking.
Live, fold only when it is your turn and do not show or talk about your cards while the hand is still running. Folding early gives the players behind you information they should not have.
Folding before the flop
Most starting hands should be folded, and how many depends on your seat. The fewer players left to act behind you, the more hands you can open. Solver-based opening charts for a six-handed table open roughly 15–17% of hands from the first seat (UTG) and about 40–45% on the button. Put the other way, a solid player folds more than 80% of hands under the gun and over half of them on the button.
Hands that look playable but cause the most trouble are weak aces and offsuit broadway cards such as A-8, K-J and Q-T from early seats. When they hit, they often make a pair with a worse kicker than the hands that raised before you. Facing a 3-bet, tighten up again: the range that re-raises you is stronger than the range that opens.
Our guides to which hands to play preflop and poker positions have opening ranges by seat.
Pot odds: how much you need to win to call
After the flop, every call has a price. The share of the final pot you are paying for is your call divided by the pot after you call. If your chance of winning is lower than that share, the call loses money over time and folding is better.
| Opponent bets | You need to win at least |
|---|---|
| 1/4 of the pot | 16.7% |
| 1/3 of the pot | 20% |
| 1/2 of the pot | 25% |
| 2/3 of the pot | 28.6% |
| The full pot | 33.3% |
| Twice the pot | 40% |
A flush draw on the turn has nine outs among 46 unseen cards, so it hits 19.6% of the time. That is enough to call a quarter-pot bet, close against a third of the pot, and not enough against half the pot unless you expect to win more chips after you hit. Our guide on how to count outs shows how to find your equity quickly, and advanced pot odds covers implied odds.
A hand played to a turn fold
$1/$2 cash game, both players with $200. You have A♠ J♠ in the cutoff. Your opponent in the big blind plays tight: they rarely raise without a strong hand.
A♠ J♠ is a clear open from the cutoff. The big blind’s call does not tell you much yet: they defend a wide range of pairs, suited cards and broadway hands.
You missed, but you have ace-high, a backdoor straight draw to the queen and ten, and a board that suits the preflop raiser. A small bet wins the pot often. Their call narrows their range to kings, eights, pocket pairs and a few draws.
The Q♠ gives you a gutshot: any ten makes the nut straight, A-K-Q-J-T. That is four outs among 46 cards, 8.7%. Your spades do not help, because with one card to come you cannot make five of them.
To call you put in $40 more, making the pot $149, so you need to win 40 ÷ 149, about 27% of the time. You hit the straight 8.7% of the time, and a tight player’s turn check-raise is mostly two pair, sets and strong kings, so ace-high almost never wins without help. Even counting the extra chips you might win when a ten lands, the price is far too high. Fold, and save both the $40 now and the larger river bet you would face next.
Folding on the river
On the river there are no cards to come, so draws are worth nothing and the only question is whether your hand beats what your opponent bets with. A pot-size bet means you need to be good one time in three. Whether you are depends on how often this player bluffs in this spot.
There are two ways to approach it. Against an unknown player, defend often enough that bluffing you does not pay: against a pot-size bet, continue with about half of the hands you arrived with. This share is called the minimum defense frequency, pot ÷ (pot + bet). Against a player you know rarely bluffs big on the river, fold more than that. The rule exists to stop bluffs from profiting, so if the bluffs are not there, calling only pays off their value hands.
The two numbers answer different questions. Required equity, call ÷ (pot after you call), tells you how often your hand must win to call. Minimum defense frequency, pot ÷ (pot + bet), tells you how much of your range should continue so that any two cards cannot bluff you profitably.
Folding in tournaments
In a cash game a chip is worth a chip, so pot odds decide. In a tournament, busting has a cost of its own. Near the money, at a final table or on a satellite bubble, the chips you lose can be worth more than the chips you win. This is called ICM pressure, and it makes some hands correct folds that would be clear calls in a cash game.
The clearest case is a satellite where every remaining player wins the same seat. If your stack already guarantees a seat, you have nothing to gain by calling an all-in, so even pocket aces can be a fold. In a regular tournament on the bubble, a short stack waiting to cash and a big stack putting pressure on them can also make folding strong hands right. Our guide to the bubble in poker covers these spots.
With short stacks, around 10–12 big blinds or fewer, most decisions become push or fold: you go all-in with your playable hands and fold the rest, without small raises or calls in between. Push-fold charts list which hands to shove from each seat at each stack size.
When not to fold
- When you can check. Folding when no one has bet gives up the pot for nothing. Online software sometimes offers Fold before Check, so read the buttons.
- When the price is tiny. Closing the action against a small bet, you need very little equity, and even weak draws can call.
- Because of the chips already in. Money already in the pot is not yours. It is not a reason to call, but a bigger pot does make the next call cheaper relative to what you win.
Folding too much is a leak as well. A player who gives up every time someone bets gets bluffed by anyone paying attention. The aim is to fold the right hands, not the most hands.
Folding FAQ
Should you ever fold pocket aces before the flop?
In cash games, almost never: aces win about 85% of the time against one random hand and stay the favourite against several. In tournaments it can be right when busting costs more than the pot is worth, most clearly on a satellite bubble with your seat already secured.
What percentage of hands should you fold?
At a six-handed table, a solid player folds about 80% or more of hands in the first seats and a little over half on the button. At a full nine-handed table you fold even more from early seats.
What is check-folding?
Checking when it is your turn and folding if someone bets. It is the cheapest way to give up a weak hand, but doing it every time lets opponents bet whenever you check.
What is a hero fold?
Folding a very strong hand, such as a set or a big overpair, because you believe the opponent has you beaten. It is only “heroic” when the read is right.
Do you have to show your cards when you fold?
No. A hand folded before showdown goes into the muck unseen, and you never have to show it.
What happens if you fold out of turn?
In most card rooms your fold stands and you may get a warning. Repeat it and you can be penalised, because an early fold changes how the players before you act.
Related reading: fold equity covers the other side of folding, how often your bets make opponents fold, and our guide to the turn and river covers the late streets in more depth.
