In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing.Different games are played using different types of bets, and small variations in etiquette exist between cardrooms, but for the most part the following rules and protocol are observed by the majority of poker.
Fast Fold is the latest sensation to hit the online poker world where you get to play more in less time – if you don’t play at least once you’ll really miss out on an amazing literal rush! Let me tell you how it is played very quickly.
How to Play Fast Fold Poker
They say that Fast Fold Poker is like poker on meth. You’re plopped down into a virtual poker table and immediately dealt a hand. If you click the check / fold button, the very second a bet is made, even before the action gets to you, you’re whisked away to another table and immediately dealt into another hand. Theoretically, you could still be back at that last table, waiting for your turn to fold a hand, and fold 4 more times or so before the action ever gets to you.
There’s no sitting around the poker table waiting for a hand for an hour with each hand taking up a minute or more of your time, especially with players letting their time clocks run down while they go to the restroom, answer the telephone or do whatever it is they do when they’re wasting your life as you wait for them to get around to taking their turn.
Where to find Fast Fold Poker Tables
Speed Poker from the iPoker Network – You’ll find super fast cash games when you hit the Speed Games button in the iPoker rooms lobby’s – there’s a choice of Speed No Limit Holdem or Speed Omaha. iPoker Rooms scrutinised, reviewed and recommended by us include: Bet365, Titan Poker and William Hill Poker.
Fast Forward Poker from Party Poker – Skip straight to the action with new Fast Forward Poker by hitting the FastForward button, flashed NEW, found along the toolbar in the lobby. These fast fold cash games can be enjoyed in No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha formats, you can even play on the move with their free app.
Blaze Poker from the Microgaming Network – At the moment the Blaze games are only played in No Limit Hold’em format. Download the Mobile Poker Smartphone App and play Blaze Poker whenever you want, wherever you are! Microgaming rooms recommended by us include Ladbrokes and 32Red Poker
Rush at Full Tilt Poker – The original and some say the best. Offering both cash games and tournaments in the Rush format. Full Tilt have fast fold covered, not surprising as they were the first site to offer the new concept back in 2011.
PokerStars Zoom – Zoom cash games have proved to be very popular with players and can be played in your favourite Hold’em ( No Limit and Fixed Limit), Omaha and Five Card Draw. Just hit the ZOOM tab in the lobby – you can play Zoom on your iPhone, iPad or Android device.
Now let’s talk about Fast Fold Poker Strategy
First we’re going to talk about cash game strategy in Fast Fold Poker games. The most popular strategy is to play the nuts and only the nuts, queens in the pocket or better or fold. In fact, many say that you should actually fold AK, TT, JJ, any of those hands pre-flop and move onto the next table waiting for your shot. That’s one way to play it and it’s a perfectly respectable way to play it.
Cash table Strategy, Steal ‘em if they’re there for the Stealing.
However… as I usually do, I have another perspective on that strategy. I say; if it’s not queens or better, don’t get ‘involved’. What that means is, try to buy them all, for at least the minimum bet as most Rush players have already pushed their check/fold buttons. So if you bet, it’s very common that the cards will all be flash folded around you and you’ll be moved on to your next table.
But don’t get ‘involved’; don’t get your heart set on stealing the blinds, just give it a shot, often. If the above is not the case, know going in that you’re behind. Don’t get fancy, there’s no reason to. Don’t try to buy the pot, or play this hand at all with your opponent, you were there for a pre-flop buy, if someone called, that mission failed. Hope for a miracle flop, and/or move on. If you hit a weak hand on the flop, again, don’t try to do anything fancy, fold fold fold and save your gold. If you do get that miracle flop, over-betting is usually a very successful move in Fast Fold Poker.
Now keep in mind however that when you first start out at Fast Fold you’re a new guy with no real reputation. People aren’t going to know how to play against you and you can therefore get away with more. If it seems like other players are re-stealing from you more and more often lately, then it’s probably true. Someone’s caught onto your fast fold poker strategy, and you’re going to have to adjust, for a while at least. Perhaps give up on stealing for a few days, so that you can trap the guy that thinks he has a read on you. Stick to those queens or better and bust his ass with them.
If you get re-raised after making that initial pre-flop steal bet, drop it like it’s hot. Don’t be cute, don’t think about it, just get rid of it and get moved on to your next table. You can get a hand every couple of seconds and the game is chock full of loose playing donks so there’s no need to try anything fancy at all, use a plain and simple preflop raise = standard followed by an all-in/fold type strategy.
Every once in a while, the game will slow down, while you and someone else seem to have a legitimate hand, after all don’t get to thinking you’re the only guy online that reads Fast Fold Poker Strategies, as it might very well be me you’re playing against! Take it easy if you don’t have the nuts, and there’s not much on the line, and he seems to want the pot more than you do, decide if the risk is worth the reward. If you have AK for instance, and you’ve bet into it pretty deep pre-flop and are called, and the flop is AK3, could he really have a 3? Is it really worth your entire stack to find out?
Now, if we were talking about a regular cash game, I say shove your chips in there as fast as you can get them over the line, but we’re not, we’re talking about Fast Fold Poker. Proceed with caution and carefully pick your spots. You’re probably going to be able to get all your chips in with aces or kings two or three times a session pre-flop heads up.
The most-taught strategy for Fast Fold Poker players is fold fold fold fold. Strategists all over the Internet suggest playing nothing less than pocket queens. What that says to me is … steal steal steal steal.
When you have Those Salty Nuts – Snatch the Sugar!
Fast Fold Poker is all about adrenaline. If you have the nuts in a hand, bet big. The minute you know you’re the winner get your opponent to get his chips onto the felt. It’s truly not often when an opponent with any part of a flop or two big cards in a fast fold poker game folds to an over bet, so don’t be shy. If shoving all in isn’t working then adjust to what is working but, when you’ve got the nuts, be sure to bet the highest callable bet.
Fast Fold Poker is a simple game – don’t complicate with Fancy Strategy.
You don’t need to do a lot of thinking to play this game. There’s no need for you to be looking for shots at showing off your fancy skills and do things like float the river. There’s no good check-raise in this game. It’s a simple straight forward game and, by playing the game that way, you’re going to earn money. It’s that simple.
Taking Detailed Player Notes is Good Fast Fold Poker Strategy
When you first start playing Fast Fold Poker it’s going to seem a bit intimidating, you won’t really see yourself keeping track of all of the players. It’s not the same as NL-Cash games you’ve played before where you can make a mental note of the player in seat 4 that constantly raises the button or how the player in seat 2 never plays his button.
Over time however you’ll find out that Fast Fold Poker Players tend to frequent the tables and many of them even sit at more than one table at a time. So, if you keep very detailed player notes and start really looking at the avatar of every guy that does something notable, and you make note of what he did, you’ll be able to use the information you’ve garnered in earlier games later on.
Be sure to note the date that you made the note and that way, in a year from now, you’ll know that that player has had a year to learn and improve his game. Also note the level you’re playing at as it’s likely at the micro-stakes tables for players to play a bit more loosely then they might at a higher stakes table. Also be very descriptive – What happened? What flopped? Who bet? Who called? Who raised? Why is this player notable? Don’t just say ‘good player’ or ‘bad player’ because your own opinion of what a good and bad player is changes over time in this game for one thing and, for another, bad players get good cards. Give your future self as much information about the situation as possible.
The Best Strategy is to Buy in at Max
As I said before, you can steal a lot of pots in this game but the big money is in getting hands like AA all in pre-flop heads up (if there are by chance 4 callers b4 you’re risking a large portion of your stack, go back to poker 101 and fold those pocket aces if you can’t narrow the field). When you do get someone all in with your monster hands heads up, you want to have enough chips to make a big hit.
Always keep yourself armed with a full stack at a Fast Fold Poker table, don’t let it go to your head, or turn you into a calling station, since you can afford it… but just wield that chip stack there menacingly as a weapon and use it when it benefits you the most.
Fast Fold Poker Tournament Strategy
When you’re playing a Fast Fold Poker Tournament, things are a lot different than in a cash game. Instead of clicking their check fold buttons, players are more fond then ever of going all in. If that seems to be the case, stay out of their way while they narrow the field for you. If it’s not the case and you can steal some blinds, then by all means, swoop them up.
Remember however, that in a tournament it’s not what happens in the beginning that matters, honestly, you can win the average tournament by actively playing no more than 4-5 hands. It’s fine to play conservatively in these events, in fact I recommend it. If the tables tighten up, then you loosen up.
Once you’ve cashed then, as Phil Ivey says, it’s time to have some fun. Play some poker and enjoy. You can also go the other route and hope that the players in the game will get a little froggy and go after each other, giving you a better position in the money.
If you find yourself in last place, wait for suited connectors or a big ace (don’t go all in with a3 or some other Ax card if you can help it, you’ll likely end up hoping for one of 3 outs…) and shove your chips until you’re no long the short-stack.
There’s one way to look at riding the short-stack. You’ve already got a lock on last; you can only go up from there, especially if you’ve already made the cash.
Have you ever put out a bet hoping that your opponent will fold? The percent of time that an opponent will fold to your bet is known as your “fold equity”. The concept of fold equity has always been with us, though its name is somewhat new. The concept comes from semi-bluffing, a bet made with a hand that’s probably not the best hand right now, but a hand that stands a good chance of outdrawing any opponents who call. When you add the idea of fold equity to whatever your chances are of improving to the best hand, it might raise a hand from one that would otherwise be a loser to one that’s worth playing.
Thinking in terms of fold equity allows a poker player to become creative with hands that would otherwise be folded if considered solely from the perspective of the hand’s chances of improving to the best hand on future betting rounds. That’s why you often see good poker players raise with otherwise suspect hands. They’ve done the math and realize that a bet from a hand that’s currently only a 40 percent shot to win, but has a 15 percent chance of inducing the opposing player to fold, now has a 55 percent chance of winning.
While the concept of fold equity applies to all forms of poker, it is much more prevalent in no-limit games where you can determine the size of your bet. It is also applied frequently in tournament poker as the variations in stack sizes can determine how much fold equity you have.
What Influences Your Fold Equity?
In order to determine how much fold equity you have, there are a few factors that you need to consider.
Your Table Image
To keep it simple, the tighter your table image, the more fold equity you have because they will assume you have a good hand. If you have been raising a lot pre-flop or betting and raising flops recently, a bet now may not be believable and it will reduce your fold equity.
Your Opponent’s Image
Is your opponent capable of folding after they’ve limped in? Do they give up their blinds? If so, a raise has more fold equity than if they are stubborn and like to see the flop. Are they capable of folding top pair, middle pair, a pocket pair? Do they fold to scare cards? If so, a bet against them has greater fold equity than against a calling station.
Your Opponent’s Hand Range
Many of the factors below go into making up your opponent’s hand range, but the main concept to be thinking about when in a hand is; “of all the hands in my opponent’s range, how many of them will fold if I bet or raise”.
Your Position
In general, a raise from early position is going to garner more fold equity than a button raise because of the perceived strength of your hand range. A late position raise may be seen as simply stealing the blinds.
The Stack Sizes
In tournament play, stack sizes are increasingly important as they become shallower in relation to the blinds. If either you or your opponent is below 40 big blinds, not only will your opponent have to think about your current bet, but they will have to worry about future bets where their entire stack can end up in the middle. They will have to determine if calling this bet is worth playing for all their chips.
Another perspective also applies to tournaments where a short-stacked opponent raises leaving themselves only a few big blinds behind. A re-raise here is not going to have much fold equity because your opponent is so short that they are desperate. Similarly, shoving all-in pre-flop into a medium sized stack that you can do damage to will have more fold equity than if you shove into a monster stack or a desperate short stack.
The Number of Opponents
Put simply…. the more people in the hand, the less fold equity you have. The odds of someone calling or raising go up as you increase the number of players in the pot. This commonly applies to raising limpers pre-flop and continuation betting on the flop. You may be itching to bluff, but understand that your success rate will go down as the number of players increases.
The Board Texture and the Betting Line
Is it believable that you actually have the hand you’re representing or did you just randomly decide to bluff the river? If your bet tells an accurate story, it will have more fold equity and a higher success rate.
The Stage of the Tournament
If you’re a tournament player, your bet or raise will often have significantly more fold equity during the bubble stage…. be that the money bubble, final table bubble or any other major pay jump. Know your opponents and pick on those trying to creep into the money.
Bet Sizing
Betting bigger doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get more folds. In fact, against some opponents you’ll get called more often with a larger bet since it looks like a bluff. You should aim to mathematically size your bets so that you have the most fold equity and also the highest long-term expected value. In many situations, the higher percentage you think your opponent will fold, the smaller you can make your bet.
Fold Equity in Practice
Here are a few examples illustrating the concept of fold equity.
Let’s say you’re in a tournament and the blinds are 100/200. You are in the big blind with a 3,200 chip stack (16 big blinds) and the button, who has 5,000 raises to 500.
You’ve observed that this player is very loose and aggressive but seems able to make laydowns and your image is fairly tight. You conclude that this player’s raising range consists of about 25% of all hands including all pairs, all broadway cards, suited connectors, Ace-rag and a variety of suited face cards.
But what about his calling range? Since he is able to make laydowns, he will probably call your all-in bet with pocket pairs 99+, AJ, AQ, and AK. That is only 6.3% of hands. If he is raising 25% of hands and calling 6.3% of hands, this means he is only calling about 25% of the time and is thus folding 75% of the time. You can profitably go all-in with a wide range of hands and have a high degree of fold equity.
Now let’s change your opponent to tight and you to loose. His tight raising range includes pairs 77+, AT+, and KQ. This represents 9.4% of hands. Now since you are a loose aggressive player, let’s assume his calling range is 88+, AJs, AQ and AK, which is 5.9% of hands. This means he is only folding about 37% of the time and calling 63%. And of course, when you are called it will be with a good hand. In this situation, you are not going to have that much fold equity and need a good hand to go all-in with.
Now let’s go back to the original scenario of you being tight, but change your stack size to 1,600, as shown below:
In this case, even though your image is tight, you will not have much fold equity. After he raises to 500 and you go all in there will be 2,200 in the pot and it will be 1,100 for them to call, giving your opponent 2-1 odds where he can profitably call with almost any two cards. Additionally, your stack size doesn’t do much damage to his, whereas in the original example a 3,200 hit to his 5,000 stack is a major blow.
Tournament Pre-Flop Shoving
Similar to the above example, there will be many times in a tournament where it will fold to you and you have to make the decision to go all in or not. Before you factor in your cards, you should factor in the players left to act behind you and what your think their calling ranges are. This will help determine your fold equity.
Let’s say you are in the small blind vs. an opponent who you think will call you with 77+, A9+ and KQ. That’s about 11% of hands, which means they will fold 89% of the time! You may also be playing online and have the benefit of a HUD (Head’s Up Display) that gives stats on that player’s VPIP stats. If they are playing 15% of hands, for example they are at least folding 85% of the time and in fact many of the hands they may have played aren’t hands they are willing to call your all in with.
Post Flop Fold Equity & Bet Sizing
Let’s say the river brings a scare card that makes you decide that bluffing is a good play. Before you make the bet, use the factors listed above and make an educated guess of the percentage of time that your opponent will fold to this bet. For this example, pretend the river brings a flush and your are putting your opponent on a top pair type hand. Based on your read of the situation, you think your opponent will assume you are only bluffing about 15% of the time and will thus fold 85% of the time.
In order to make your bluff have positive expected value, you should size your bet so that the pot odds they are getting make it an unprofitable decision for them to call. If you bet ½ the pot, they will be getting 3-1 odds; which translates to them needing to think they are ahead 1 out of every 4 times (or 25%). Since your read was that they would only think you are bluffing 15% of the time, this bet size has fold equity and will make a profit in the long run.
The danger of fold equity, of course, is that many weak players use this notion simply as a way of talking themselves into playing hands that ought to be folded because their assessment of fold equity is horribly wrong. If, for example, you’re playing against an opponent who seldom folds and cannot be bluffed, just forget about fold equity. You have none. Instead, all you should do is value bet your good hands instead, because while you can’t bluff this kind of player you can and will get paid off every time you wager.
Conclusion
Best Poker Folds
Understanding how much fold equity you have is a very important concept that is often overlooked by poker players of all skill levels. Many poker players can become robotic in their actions and just keep betting hoping their opponent will fold. They pour the aggression on and fail to think about the likelihood that their bets will be successful. While aggression is good, blind aggression can be a major leak.
The overall message you should take from this lesson is to not just blindly check or bet in a given situation because you think an opponent is “weak” or “strong”. Think about your opponents hand range and what percentage of time they will fold to a bet or raise. This is your fold equity and you should always know how much you have and how to use it.
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By Donovan Panone
Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.