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# Poker/Protection

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One of the motives for betting or raising is to give your hand protection, which means to encourage opponents to fold a /Drawing hand that might otherwise improve to beat yours. This is generally done with a /Made hand that you perceive as vulnerable to an opponent's drawing hand. This differs from a /Bluff in that the latter can win only when the opponent folds, while a bet for protection is made with a hand that is likely to win a showdown, but is not strong enough for /Sandbagging.

It is especially important to bet for protection when there are multiple opponents. For example, if your hand is presently the best, but each of four opponents has a 1-in-6 chance of beating you, the four combined are actually a favorite to defeat you, even though each one is individually an underdog. If you bet, some or all of them will fold, leaving you with fewer opponents and a better chance of winning.

The term protection is also often heard in the context of an all-in player (see Poker/Table stakes rules), because a bet by any player serves to protect the hand of an all-in player just as it protects the bettor (and possibly moreso). To deliberately make such a bet solely to protect a hand other than your own is a form of /Collusion?.

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Last edited June 6, 2001 3:35 pm (diff)
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