What Poker Hands To Fold

Posted on 4/12/2022 admin

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Mucking is an often misunderstood part of poker. Knowing the definition and when it is both appropriate and strategically correct to muck is an important part of the game. I have researched every angle of the subject of mucking and decided to pass along my findings to you.

If you can put these into your repertoire of hands you need to fold pre-flop, you’ll potentially find that your sessions are more profitable. Jack-10 (Suited or unsuited) At first glance, J-10 is a. Poker Starting Hands Starting hands are pocket cards you enter the game with. The selection of correct starting hands is very important in Hold 'Em, because the result often depends on the cards you play with. Roughly speaking, you need to be able to separate good cards from bad cards, fold garbage hands and play with stronger ones.

What is a muck in poker? The word muck can be used as a noun or a verb. As a noun, the muck refers to the pile of discarded cards lying on the table. As a verb, mucking means to fold your hand. Most often, the word is used at the end of a hand when a player is faced with a decision on whether to show his cards or “muck” them.

Simply understanding the concept of mucking in poker is one thing. Knowing how to use that information is another. To learn more about how to use the poker muck rules to your advantage at the table, read on.

Poker Muck Rules

At face value, mucking poker hands seems like a fairly straightforward concept. Even so, there are a few rules about mucking that every poker player should know:

The muck is a one-way street: Once your cards even touch the muck, your hand is dead and cannot win. Make sure you are 100% sure you are folding before you throw those cards into the muck. Never EVER reach your hand into the muck to try to retrieve cards. This is a serious breach of the rules.
Muck your hand correctly: The correct way to muck is to place your cards down in front of the dealer, not chuck them across the table haphazardly. Eventually, you will turn one or more cards up and annoy everyone at the table.
Do not muck your hand out of turn: or let anyone know you plan to fold since this is a breach of both the rules and etiquette. We don’t want to unfairly give one or more players this type of information. Make sure you learn the showdown rules of poker so you know when to muck.
Beginners should never muck their hand on the river: Even experienced players sometimes misread their cards. Throwing away the winning hand, even in a small pot, is extremely frustrating.

What Is Considered a Muck in Poker?

Mucking is the same as folding. If you place your cards on the discard pile or slide your cards toward the dealer, your hand is said to be mucked and is dead for the rest of the current hand.

Your hand can also be mucked automatically if your time bank runs out in online poker or someone calls the clock on you and you run out of time in live poker.

Can I Set My Cards down Again Once I Pick Them Up?

If you pick your cards up and then place them in front of you, that is not considered a muck. In fact, you can pick your cards up and set them down as many times as you like, as long as you do not verbally declare that you are folding or touch your cards to the discard pile.

If the Dealer Deals One of My Cards to the Wrong Person, Is It Mucked?

If the dealer accidentally gives your card to the wrong player, you should announce it immediately. If it is obvious which card was dealt to the other player, a correction can be made and the card shifted to you. However, if the other player mixed it with his other card or cards or took a look at it, the card is dead.

If you are in the blinds a misdeal would be declared and the hand restarted. If you are not in the blinds and your card is declared dead, then it would be given back to the dealer and used as the burn card for the flop.

When Can You Muck Your Hand in Poker

On every betting round you must follow the correct order of play and wait until the action is on you before you can fold or muck your hand. Showdown is the only time that a player may muck his or her hand out of turn.

When Are Your Cards Considered Mucked

There are three instances that your cards can be considered automatically mucked:

You push your hand to the dealer
Your cards touch the discards already mucked
You verbally announce that you fold

Always remember, if you are in doubt about the local muck rules it is okay to ask the dealer or even the floor.

What If Someone Mucks out of Turn

If someone mucks out of turn there is no automatic penalty given to that player. However, except for at showdown, it is still a breach of poker etiquette to either muck your hand or telegraph that you are folding before the action is on you.

Players who continuously fold out of turn and become disruptive to the table for doing so, may be given a penalty by the dealer or floor at their discretion.

Can You Ever Ask to See Mucked Cards?

At showdown, any player who was dealt into a particular hand can ask to be shown any hand that was called, even if was thrown into the muck. However, this is known to be in bad form and is looked at as being extremely bad etiquette.

The only time you should ever remotely consider asking the dealer to flip over a mucked hand is if it was a huge pot and you suspect cheating or collusion.

Mucking Strategy – Deciding When to Muck or Show

First off, if you are a beginner you should always flip your hand over at showdown. Staying involved mentally all the way until the completion of the hand is important in the learning process. Always showing also prevents you from ever misreading your hand and folding the winner.

On the other hand, advanced players should never show losing cards without a very good reason. Poker is a game of information and the less you can give away for free, the better.

Look Before You Muck

To avoid silly errors, I advise getting in the habit of taking one last peek at your cards before folding. This prevents you from ever accidentally folding the winner. Even the best misread their cards from time to time.

How to Muck Your Hand Properly

Folding your cards is no time to get fancy. Just about every so-called “serious” player out there seems to want to impress everyone with their fancy mucking technique. Don’t be that person.

Fold your cards correctly by placing them face down in a neat little stack and quickly sliding them to the dealer. Dramatic, time-consuming, folding techniques will only slow down the action and actually hurt your hourly rate.

A Wise Poker Player

Folding in poker is similar to investing money. Do it often and soon. You especially want to fold your hand quickly if you likely have the best hand. One of the worst things that can happen is getting accused of slow rolling at the poker table.

Protecting Your Hand

If your intention is to keep your hand live then you should always protect your hand. Either purchase a decent card protector or place a low denomination chip on top of your cards. Otherwise, the dealer might accidentally muck your cards. This happened in a huge WSOP hand a few years ago, as shown in the following video.

Mucked Cards Shown in Online Poker

Some poker sites allow for mucked cards to be shown in the hand histories of the site whether you have “auto muck” clicked or not. This is a feature added to combat issues with cheating or collusion.

I recommend using this information to your advantage when reviewing your play in your preferred tracking software program. You can see exactly what your opponents do in particular situations and gain and, as a result, optimize your lines.

Final Thoughts

Just like any other part of learning poker, understanding mucking rules is just one small piece of the puzzle towards making a person a complete player. While mastering strategy and tactics lead to profit, mastering the basics of gameplay is also important.

Every little thing you do in poker leads to maximizing your profit. Isn’t that what the game is all about?

Even if you are a neophyte to the game of poker, there are some basic tenets that you have before you even pick up a stack of chips to bet. One, when you get pocket Aces, you pound your opposition with a pre-flop raise otherwise everyone and their brother gets to play the hand and potentially crack your bullets. Two, you don’t need to play “special” hands like a 7-2, universally recognized as the worst hand in poker. Finally, there isn’t a such thing as “funsies,” 99% of the time you’re playing poker for a reason – normally to make some money.

Beyond that, the education of a poker player gets a bit grey. Here’s a basic thought on some hands that new players will play simply because “someone told them it was worthwhile” or “but (insert professional player here) always plays this hand” or even “I had a feeling.” If you can put these into your repertoire of hands you need to fold pre-flop, you’ll potentially find that your sessions are more profitable.

Jack-10 (Suited or unsuited)

At first glance, J-10 is a pretty sweet looking hand. It holds the potential to make four nut straights, the only two card combination to be able to do that, and it can let you float a bet on the flop if they are suited and two of that suit hit the felt. The problem with J-10 is that it doesn’t play well after the flop.

If you get a flop that contains a Jack, then you have issues with the kicker that, in most cases, is going to be dominated by an opponent playing Q-J, K-J, or A-J. If you pair the ten, then the same situation is in play with a similar number of options that beat you – A-10, K-10 and Q-10. If they are suited and the two matching suit cards that come on the flop are under the ten, then there is a chance (a slim one, about 1-in-592) that an A-K, A-Q, or K-Q is out there to clip you. And let’s not even get into the potential for straights (K-Q, Q-9, 9-8) should you flop two pair.

There are two options here: hit perfectly and hope someone ignores the straight potential of the board, calling your bets all the way, or missing and having to let the hand go. If you get a flop like K-Q-x, about the only people who might come with you are pocket pairs (King, Queen or “x”) or those that have you beaten (A-K, A-Q, K-Q, any King or Queen combination and the pairer for the “x”). If the flop comes empty – say A-7-4, for example – then you’re left with air to bluff with; most wouldn’t consider chasing it any further with this dismal holding.

Baby pairs

Everyone loves to potentially crack a big pair by playing a small one – between deuces and fives – and set mining their way into the lead. But what happens when you’ve completely missed with your little ones? It gets pretty ugly in this case.

In pre-flop action, the baby pairs don’t hold up well if there is a great deal of action in front of you. Say you’re sitting on deuces on the button when someone fires a bet out of middle position, the hijack calls and the cutoff three-bets the situation. Your pocket deuces don’t look so good now, do they? There’s nothing wrong with sending the hand to the muck here and, in fact, it is the proper play with the flurry of activity ahead of you.

The baby pairs don’t hold up well if the cards on the flop are all higher cards, at best giving you the fourth-best hand after the flop. They also don’t work well as a straight filler. For example, if you have pocket treys and fill out a 2-4-5 flop to make it an open ended straight draw, there are other potential players that crush your baby pair or could best you in a straight situation.

Extremely Gapped Suited Cards

If you were to get dealt two extremely gapped cards – say a K-2 or a Q-3, for example – there would, for most players, be little hesitation in putting those in the muck. Why then, if there is the same symbol in the corner for each card, does it make a difference? While their suited nature does open the potential for a flush, it isn’t going to do much in any other circumstance.

If that flush draw comes, then you’re committing with weak holdings – sneaky for the flush potential, yes, but weak otherwise. If you flop a King, then you have kicker issues that come up and the same works if you hit the kicker – your top card might not be enough to win at showdown unless you make trips with the kicker.

Summary