Folding on the River

There is a lot of poker players out there that you will never see fold on the river. It doesn’t matter if they were on a draw and they only have queen high, they will still call your bet on the river. On the other hand, there are a lot of players out there that will fold on the river almost every time. They cannot fold on the flop or the turn, but they will make an effort to fold their hand on the river. So the question is, when is folding on the river the right choice?

A pretty good standard rule to go by is to just simply fold when you are beat. If it manages to come down to the river and you are beat then just fold. No matter how “pot committed” that you are, there is still no reason to give you opponent even more money then you already have. A good reason for this circumstance to come up is if you are on a draw, and you miss your draw. If you miss your draw then it is pretty self explanatory to just fold.

There are some instances when folding on the river seems logical but you still may want to call anyways for other reasons. Even if you know you are beat, if the price is right you might call to get information on your opponent. If you really want to know what they have on that hand, then call their bet on the river to see what they have. Once they show (and since you are calling them, they will have to show), then you can just simply muck your hand and take the loss. This will help you in the long run, because you would have gained valuable information; perhaps even more valuable then winning that one hand.

What if you do not know whether you are beat or not?

Another question that often comes up is what to do if you cannot figure out if you are beat. If it comes down to the river and you think you are not sure, then you need to think about the risk. If you are demanded your entire chip stack just to call the bet, then it is probably not worth it to call on the river. If you are getting the right price, then it will probably be worth it to take the risk and find out where you are on the river.

There should not be many times where your decision making has to come down to the river. Most of the information you will gain will be on the flop and before the flop. Not only that, but most hands do not actually get down to the river. If they do, then you pretty much already know what you are going to do before it gets that far. The only times you will be faced with tough decisions on the river is if you let yourself get to that point or if something unexpected turns out. You may be on a flush draw, but then you end up hitting high pair on the river. This is a time where you will be faced with a tough decision on whether folding on the river is right or not. It all depends on your opponents and the situation that is going on in that hand and game.