Are you looking for intermediate poker tactics that will help you edge out the competition by increasing the profitability of your bets? Then you’ll be pleased to learn about Poker fold equity, a technique that involves paying close attention to implied odds while looking to make your opponents fold. It’s a relatively simple method that you can start using today to quickly improve your results in online casino poker.

Read through this article to learn how to determine your fold equity using a simple fold equity formula. As you’ll see, you can do the calculations mentally or use online calculators.

All professional poker players carefully ponder on fold equity before calling a bet, whether or not they realize it. Start getting in the habit of always trying to determine your fold equity before making a move and you’ll find the profitability of your bets will tend to increase as you’ll start making educated guesses, rather than just relying on hunches.

What is Fold Equity and Why Should You Care About It?

In simple terms, Poker fold equity is the estimated likelihood that another player might fold after you place your wager. While you cannot obviously know those odds without reading your opponent’s mind, there is actually a simple reasoning that you can follow to make a reasonable guess. As you get better in gauging this probability, the profitability of your bets will consistently be on the rise.

The actual profitability of a bet in poker is the combination of your pot equity with the fold equity of the other players. Think of it this way: pot equity involves calculating your winning odds by staying focused in your cards and looking at the game from the inside out; Poker fold equity involves looking carefully from the outside in to try and determine your implied odds.

You already know that pot equity refers to your probability of getting the winning hand; those odds vary depending on your pocket cards as well as the subsequent community cards. Pot equity can be calculated quite objectively, and it’s the percentage you’re used to seeing next to each player ‘s name during a professional poker game on television.

On the flip side, calculating fold equity must be done somewhat subjectively by weighing in a number of factors, as you’ll see below. While it’s not possible to make a precise calculation (since you don’t know all the exact variables) you will find that you can learn to accurately foresee if a player is likely to fold. This insight can be extremely valuable to you, especially when you’re planning to bluff or semi-bluff – which as you may know is an absolute requirement for any type of online poker tournament success, when push always comes to shove.

Here’s a Simple Poker Fold Equity Formula You Should Start Using Now!

Since fold equity is a subjective calculation, there are different theories on what the best fold equity formula should be. There are some truly advanced formulas out there which are only decipherable by advanced mathematicians, and there are simplified formulas meant to be used by anyone; there are even online calculators that you can use to determine fold equity by punching in some key numbers. While you may want to check up on those tools and advanced formulas on a later occasion, we’d like to get you started with a very simple reasoning.

You will find it easier to start using Poker fold equity to your advantage now if you just become aware of the major variables in it, rather than worrying too much about exact numbers or memorizing complex formulas that would not be practical to use, anyway. So what are the key variables you should factor in when trying to estimate the Poker fold equity of other players? There are four essential key variables you should watch for:

  • Pot size before you place your bet; the higher the stakes, the less likely your opponent will fold
  • Total amount you have to call; the more money other players have already invested in the current hand, the less likely they will be folding
  • Amount you plan to shove into your bet; the more action you shove, the likelier your opponents will fold – especially if you go all-in
  • How often you have been calling during this game; if you have been quiet for a while, a sudden aggressive bet on your part will be likelier to command some respect and wariness from other players