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Laying Down Hands in No Limit

Winning in No Limit eventually comes down to having enough chips to make the move that you deem is best for the situation at hand. That means you need to know how to lay down beaten cards. Whatever stake you are playing in, laying down is a must study.

Sometimes folding No Limit hands is easy; you get 73 or 58 offsuite, you muck it with even thinking of seeing the flop. But what about those times when you get hands like AT or AJ? Here the situation becomes more complex.

First if you are under the gun, muck the hand; you have no means of gathering the information you need. If you are in middle position, you can review the actions of the No Limit players before you. If someone called the bet and was raised, throw away that hand.

The fact that the early position player bet doesn't necessarily mean he had a strong hand; he could have been bluffing. But the fact that it was called, and raised by another player, means those two No Limit players have something. If someone is going to raise in early to mid position, the hand is bigger than AT or AJ for certain.

A more delicate situation involves getting an AK and pairing one or the other on the flop. Normally you will want to play this hand, but be aware of how the other No Limit players bet.

If they make bet or raises, despite the Ace or King on board, there could be a straight or flush there. If you have neither, think about what you want to do; you can stick around for the turn, but if nothing comes up, fold. This can be very difficult to do, particularly when you have the Ace or King. However, you need to realize that a good starting hand is not indispensable; learn how to see when even the best hand is beaten.

If you insist on playing an unpaired AK with nothing on the flop and the turn, you risk ending up with the second best hand. The bets double up on the turn and river, so you will just waste more money on a losing hand.

Laying down a hand in No Limit is never fun, but there will be times in Poker when you have to do something painful to give yourself a better chance in the latter games. Remember that folding is about taking the right way out of a losing hand, and making the correct decision is what the game is all about.