Why You Probably Won't Win in Texas Hold Em If You Get a Bad Flop
The flop in a game of Texas Holdem poker is one of the most important events in every hand. This is because after these three cards have been revealed a player can now see these three plus the two that he or she was dealt face down at the start. With only two more to go in the turn and the river, a player can now see five out of the seven potential cards that will make up their poker hand come the showdown at the end. Seeing five-sevenths of a hand is a huge percentage (71% in fact), which means if the hand is still bad at this point then chances are that it isn't going to get a heck of a lot better. Add to this the fact that betting amounts have now doubled after the flop, and it should be apparent that if a player finds themselves with a poor hand after the flop it would nearly always be wise to fold and save their chips for better times (which will hopefully be the next hand).
Knowing When to Fold
Of course this is just general advice, and there will be times when the turn and river just happen to produce those exact cards which make up your straight or royal flush, but the laws of probability suggest that more often than not this won't be the case and you will have thrown money into a pot which a fellow opponent will gleefully accept when they showdown a hand that was much stronger than yours and deep down you knew all along that it would be.
A significant part of being a successful and profitable Texas Hold Em player is knowing when to call, when to raise, and most importantly of all, when to fold. With pots hard to come by as it is, the last thing you want to be doing is throwing your chips away into a pot which you have very little chance of winning. Whilst poker players should be cordial and respectful to each other, at the end of the day you aren't a charity and are here to win money from them, not give it to them!