Folding Top Pair?

Hey guys,

First post here. I've been playing on stars for about 8 days now. After my first week I was up about 7 buy ins, but today i lost nearly 14 buy ins at 0.02/0.05.

I think one of the major reasons i did so poorly today was my inability to often let go of top pair. I was just wondering if there are certain situations where folding top pair should be automatic.

1st Example: I hold top pair, I bet every street and get called then reraised on river, should this be an auto fold no matter what? (Assuming no info on villain)

2nd Example: I hold top pair, I'm in position and villain makes what seem to be significant sized value bets (2/3 - 3/4 pot) at every street, should i be folding when he makes another of these bets on the river? (Also assuming no info on villain)

3rd Example: I hold top pair on the flop, I make a continuation/value bet and get reraised. Should i be folding top pair here at 5nl?

I also included a picture of my "final hand statistics" so that you guys might be able to confirm that holding on to top pair is a problem for me. (Not sure how relevant these stats are.)
Stats here --> http://i.imgur.com/0l0DL.jpg


Thanks guys.

P.S. Sorry if this post is poorly formatted or if these are annoying/stupid questions. Very new here and new to poker in general. Thanks.

2 words come to mind - stop loss. When raised on the river you should have a very strong hand to call unless you've completely over-committed yourself that pot odds are very lol. As far as the other examples, post some hands. GL

your questions are too general, and like most new players, it seems like you're looking for formulas, which is standard.

If you actually want to get good at poker, you've got to start posting hand histories because there's a lot of information there that your vague examples are missing.

Since I'm bored, I'll indulge your examples...

1st: usually fold yes.
2nd & 3rd: sometimes fold

The answer is "it depends" for all of these questions, but from the tone of your post I think you need to change your angle of your approach so that you stop focusing on what to do with certain hands, but rather start to analyze the entire situation, from the board texture, how it hits your entire range, how it hits your opponent's range, specific reads, whether you have position or not, stack sizes...

Just to take question 3, to show how impossible it is to answer this question, consider two situations:

a) You are UTG, raise 4x and are called by the button. Let's say you don't have many hands on him, but from what you've seen he's pretty tight. You have . You are 150bb deep. Flop comes:



You bet 1/2 pot, he makes a good sized raise.


b) You are on the BU, there's a limper in MP with 30bb who is an unknown but because he limped and he's short he's probably a fish. You raise to 5x and the limper calls. You have .

Flop comes:



He checks to you, you bet out 3/4 pot, he check-raises you all-in.

Do you see that your postflop plan has to be completely different in these two situations even though in both cases you flop TPTK?

edit: ... and if you don't see the reasons why the situations are different, or how the factors should change the way you approach the hands, that's ok, that's what this forums is here for.

hey guys,

sorry if the information was vague, thanks for the info anyway. I'll try and post up some hands later this week.

Hey guys!
Here are some hands from tonight that seemed like good examples in regard to this matter. I've been trying to tighten up my play with top pair, because i think it really is one of my major flaws. Please let me know if you think i made good decisions in these hands and if there is absolutely anything i could improve on. Thanks!


Hand 1
PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players


Hero (UTG): $6.28
MP: $4.38
CO: $8.71
BTN: $5.54
SB: $5.00
BB: $5.84

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero has A A

Hero raises to $0.20, MP calls $0.20, fold, BTN calls $0.20, fold, fold

Flop: ($0.67, 3 players) Q T 6
Hero bets $0.45, MP calls $0.45, BTN calls $0.45

Turn: ($2.02, 3 players) 9
Hero bets $1.20, MP calls $1.20, BTN calls $1.20

River: ($5.62, 3 players) J
Hero checks, MP bets $2.53 and is all-in, fold, fold

MP wins $5.39


Hand 2
PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players


CO: $3.14
Hero (BTN): $5.42
SB: $5.19
BB: $3.78
UTG: $5.00

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero has J A

fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.20, fold, BB calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.42, 2 players) 9 7 J
BB checks, Hero bets $0.30, BB calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.02, 2 players) 2
BB checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75

River: ($2.52, 2 players) 8
BB bets $2.53 and is all-in, fold

BB wins $2.42

Both hands look like folds to me on river, but you're not telling us anything about villains, which is critical when deciding if top pair/overpair should be folded.

Get poker tracker / hold 'em manager. Make notes when you see showdowns. Not only does this make your decisions easier, it also means you get better advice when you post hands.