No matter how good your hand is, you have to let it go if you think you are beat. That means if you have an ace high flush and the there are two pair on the board, if you bet the pot and an opponent comes over the top on you, you'd better believe he has a full house. Your flush is as worthless as any two rags and as hard as it is, you have to lay them down.
This is one of the most difficult parts of the game; learning to make tough laydowns. Sometimes you know you are beat but it's just so hard to fold a nice hand! If this is a problem you have, then you must learn to take pride in your good folds. Donks want to be known for making hero calls and hero bluffs. You are not a donk. You want to be known for making great laydowns.
Yesterday I made the best pre-flop fold I have ever made in my life.
I brought $200 to a $1/$2 NLHE table. I had barely sat down when on my second or third hand I was dealt pocket kings. There was a straddle on board with one caller, so I raised it $10 (anymore would get too much attention) and the fellow on my left re-raised to $25. Sweet! The small blind, who only had about $60 called. What to do? There is only one hand I am afraid of, and the odds of being dealt AA are less than half of one percent, so I'm confident I'm ahead and it's time to punish these undisciplined louts. I make it $100 to go, committing half my stack, and I'm hoping that someone calls. However the guy on my left does not call - he goes all in with about $300. I should be elated, but instead I am filled with the cold certainty that this guy has the pocket aces. I don't care if the odds are 221 to 1 against it - I think a decent player (and I've played this guy before - he's very good) doesn't re-raise a bet 50 times the big blind with anything but AA. The guy in the small blind calls with the remaining $40 or so he has - whatever.
I think this guy has aces, but am I really going to fold pocket kings pre-flop? I don't think I've folded this hand pre-flop in my life, but I am convinced I am behind. I fold. As there can be no more betting, I show my kings. Lefty nods and says "great fold" and turns over the black aces. The guy in the small blind shows ace-king off, which means had I called I would have only a single king to hit. The dealer lays out the hand and there are no miracle flushes or straight to save the guy with AK. I thank the poker gods that the last king didn't show up either - that would have been hard to swallow.
So. I lost half my stack, but I didn't lose all of it. And I did gain something else - Respect. Knowing that I was now seen as a very disciplined player meant that the others really didn't want to tangle with me too much. I knuckled down and three hours later I had grown my remaining $100 to $330, leaving the table with a $130 profit. How did I do that? I played unbelievably tight, disciplined poker and I basically scared the crap out of everyone when I did enter a pot.
But even if hadn't made that comeback, the important thing is that I laid down a monster hand when I knew it was beat.
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