There's an article in the new Cardplayer called The Courage to Fold, and I think it's worth reading. As I mentioned in my last post, I've noticed that the biggest dent in my win rate for NL cash games comes from the times that I take a big loss, and at least some of the times I've been busted have been times when I could have made a good laydown. I had a feeling I was beat, but called with the worst hand anyway and did not get lucky. So, along with game selection, I've also been focusing on making disciplined laydowns when called for.
Here's an example from a hand I played last night where this really paid off. It was a NLHE cash game with blinds of $0.10/$0.25 and a $25 max buy-in. I had about the max. It had been folded to me in middle position and I had KJs. I limped, and it was folded around to the blinds. The small blind limped, and the big blind raised to $1. I thought for a moment but then folded. KJs is a pretty marginal hand, and the raiser could very well have had me dominated. I didn't know a lot about the big blind, but from what I had seen he seemed solid. I had position, but that didn't seem to be enough to make it worth calling another 3x the big blind.
The flop came J2J and I started to regret my fold, but by the time the smoke cleared the small blind was all-in and the big blind turned over AJ. Had I played that pot I think there's a very good chance I would have gone broke. It would have been tempting to put the raiser on a hand like a pocket pair and not on the one specific hand that would beat me which made sense, AJ. I certainly wouldn't have put the raiser on J2 or 22.
So, by folding preflop I saved myself not only the $0.75 I had to call, but the rest of my stack as well.
Ted