Tips for making big folds?

My suggestion is to remind yourself to give extra consideration in these types of spots.

For a while I had a note in my phone that said, "If raising or calling is not clearly plus EV, fold." That way when I went into my phone I would see it and it would be a reminder.

At the time I was struggling with snap-calling small river bets with hands like second pair (because of pot odds), even though it was often pretty obvious they had something that beat me like a weak top pair.

Anyway the improvement wasn't immediate but over time this did seem to help. Good luck!

Hopefully you pick up a read. Like a guy that quickly bets the river when the card should make him ponder. I realize he’s already made up his mind to bluff no matter the card.

It’s not easy, but you have to consider the circumstances & how you got there. If you think you’re no better than a flip, do you want to take that gamble? What’s the best hand he could have that you beat? Is it likely he makes a move with that hand?

Take your time and think back through the hand remembering that most people don’t bluff very much. I tend to find plays where I have a big edge, so there’s no reason to risk a lot when I don’t know where I’m at.

It’s ok to be bluffed sometimes. Consider yourself beat unless you can find some strong reasons you’re not. Getting shown a bluff & losing nothing is easier than getting shown the nuts and losing your stack.

Every time I struggle to fold, it’s the “Hero” in me trying to prove something — while the “Analyst” quietly watches the line and shakes his head. These days, I give the mic to the Analyst more often. He’s not dramatic, but he saves me stacks.

Well, first of all you should make sure that folding actually is the correct action. If you are high in your range or if the bet size is really small, it may be correct to call even if you are behind most of the time. I just commented on a post where hero had a decent but not huge hand (QQ after a low flop aA hit the turn and both players checked). Pot was four bet PF and was up to about 190bb by the river. Hero bet something like 14bb and villain minraised. Hero is going to be behind a lot in this spot, but it almost certainly is a correct call. He only needs to win about 9% of the time to break even by calling - villain will have JJ enough (plus any bluffs) to make hero’s call profitable.

The fact that you lost after calling does not imply you should have folded. Sure, it’s good to question your actions always, but those hero folds may not always be correct.

Pay attention to the action. If someones calling and hanging around they're probably drawing on the straight or flush on the board. If they get there top pair top kicker is cooked. If they're calling and then suddenly want more chips in on the river... they hit something along the way like a set and they're value betting. When you play against stronger opponents they'll be able to represent hands they don't have convincingly so it helps to take notes and keep track of the way people are playing even when you're not involved in the hand.

Information is king but at the end of the day you're going to fold when you should have called and call when you should have folded. Making the right play with the information you have is the best you can do.

Overcalling used to be one of my biggest issues. By far and away the thing that’s helped me the most isn’t a psychological trick, but has rather been a useful, theory based heuristic. Whenever I am considering a call, I think to myself, what’s my whole calling range here? Made it to the river with 99 and a flush hits while I’m OOP with two overs on board? Turns out I’ve got like 8 other hands, all better than 99, that I can call with, sweet, easy fold. And other times it takes the agony of needing to “bleed chips” away. Just yesterday I played like 4 hands where I faced gross river action that I didn’t wanna face, but then I used my mental model and was like “this is literally the strongest hand in my calling range I have to call”. Twice I lost regret free cause I’m hitting MDF and twice I happily scooped pots I was shocked to win.

This.

Top pair without much of a kicker or top pair first to act v several players with deep stacks. Danger. Fold it to all but whales

Exactly yeah: it’s usually better to continue hands with redraws to nutted hands than it is ok made hands that don’t beat value bets when you’re about to get leveraged.

GTO Wizard did a great video on leverage back in the day actually I’ll grab the link now: