Folding your hand should be part of your arsenal of moves at the poker table. I know that may sound strange to some but I am a firm believer in folding when you are beat. Far too often I see players get deep into a hand with the worst of it never realizing it until they have invested too much into the pot. Once this happens they are pot committed to the value bet on the end and ultimately lose far too much in the hand.

There is a feeling that kicks in when a good player knows they are beat. Sometimes it even overrides the logic in the cards and how the board looks at the moment. When you are really tuned in to the game your instincts will tell you and you need to listen. Some of the best plays I have ever made are plays where I did not go broke when I should have.

I can recall a hand a few weeks ago in the first thirty minutes of a tournament when I hit bottom set on a rainbow board. There were no straight possibilities on the board and I bet out after the flop. I got re-raised and called. The turn hit the board and I bet out again and got re-raised all-in. That caused me to think for a moment. The way this hand was playing out in my mind was atypical. One of the red flags for me was that it was not a raised pot. Armed with this information I believed there was a strong possibility that my opponent had hit a set also. Second, his betting patterns did not indicate that he had a big hand. There were no face cards on the board either. Again, in my minds eye, his betting patterns indicated only one thing and that was that I was B-E-A-T!

I folded to his raise on fourth street and he showed me top set. A fantastic play on my part and an excellent read. So the next time you get that feeling that something just doesn’t add up. Follow your instincts and fold. It’s one of the best plays you can ever make.