Talk:Protection (poker)

Definition
Is this right? I'm not sure that protecting is about "encouraging" opponents to fold drawing hands. Rather, it's about making sure they pay for the cards. If your odds of winning are 4:1, I'm very happy for you to stay in the pot with pot odds of 3:1. I just don't want you to stay in the pot with odds of 5:1. Stevage 06:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Good point. You want them to pay the wrong price in calling, and prevent them from getting the right price on the call. You want to make it unprofitable to call with a drawing hand, so you don't mind if they do.  2005 08:56, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Multiple opponents in the pot

 * The importance of protection increases when there are multiple opponents. For example, if a hand is presently the best, but each of four opponents has a 1-in-6 chance of drawing an out, the four opponents combined become the favorite to win, even though each one is individually an underdog.  With a protection bet, some or all of them may fold, leaving fewer opponents and a better chance of winning.

This is not necessarily true. For example, two opponents on the same flush draw do not decrease the made hand's equity, since they're drawing towards the same outs (and one of them is drawing dead). PokitJaxx (talk) 13:18, 17 October 2009 (UTC)