[elysium]

hi sparks

it is o.k. to fold when it is your turn to act, even if there hasn't been a bet, especially when there are others waiting to act behind you.

sometimes, you will have a hand like, 88 on a KJT9 board in a multi-way, in MP. if you are checked to, mucking can be strategically correct if you muck when checked to because any card coming off on the river will hurt you, and you just want to avoid the possibility of getting greedy when you river a 7 or 8, even though there is a miniscule risk of mucking a hand that would have won on the free showdown. you may feel as though that risk is less than the risk that you might call in the event of a 7 or 8 landing, even though you still have the option to muck in that eventuality. you see, if the 7 or 8 lands, and you are faced with having to fold to a bet with a set or bottom end, and no one calls, you may feel as though you have folded the winner, even though you folded correctly. so you fold premptively to prevent the specter of 55 or 66 from now nagging at you and perhaps weighting down the session and making you play a little less correctly than you otherwise would have. if you muck before the river, even if you find out that you mucked the winner, you still only mucked a pair of 88 and not a set or straight. that mollifies the over-all effect of having mucked the winner because it's a more common type of muck. mucking a set of straight, well, that can nag at you. also notice that in the event that the river bet isn't called, mucking the 88 on the turn doesn't cause the nagging sensation to manifest.

so, mucking when checked to can be strategically correct when it helps to remove the risk of throwing your session off, and that risk is possibly greater than the risk of the effect of knowing that you mucked the winner, due to the miniscuality of the possibility.

of course, you could just grow up.