Poker protection: Why and when we must protect our hand

A lot of old-school poker lingo has faded away in time. Take the ‘feeler bet’, for example. “I was just betting to see where I was at” is rarely uttered at a poker table in 2021.

But some of the lingo from the pre-online years is still around and remains just as relevant as it was back in the day.

‘Betting for protection’ is one that has stuck around. A protection bet is when we have a hand that’s likely ahead but is vulnerable to certain turns and rivers.

Here’s an example of an old-school ‘protection bet’ from High Stakes Poker. Or at least, that’s what one of the players involved thought it was.

Jamie Gold vs Sammy Farha

Jamie Gold and Sammy Farha played one of the most insane and ridiculous hands in TV poker history on High Stakes Poker back in the day. You might remember it: Gold opens with pocket kings, Farha 3-bets with pocket aces, Gold calls, and then the two get into a betting battle in the dark for the flop and turn action.

By the turn (with $191,000 already in the middle) the board is ten-high and Gold checks. “I want to protect my hand, Jamie,” Farha announces. “I want to bet $100,000.”

In an ordinary hand, when you’re holding pocket aces on a wet draw-heavy board, protecting your hand and getting value by betting can be a good idea, generally speaking. But in this particularly bizarre hand, Gold has all but told Farha he has pocket kings. With only two outs in the deck to help Gold, why would Farha need protection when Gold has such little equity?

These days most players tend to slot their bets into one of two categories: value bets and bluffs. But according to Jordan “bigbluffzinc” Drummond (a.k.a. BBZ), that’s not the way we should approach it.

“Don’t think of poker as in value bets and bluffs,” says BBZ. “Instead, think value bets and offsets, i.e. bluffs which offset your value and keep people guessing.”

This bet by Farha is a clear value bet rather than a bet for protection. In this instance, there are no draws on the board. Farha should (and probably did) know that Gold has the kings, but still announced he was betting for protection rather than value.

What is a real protection bet?

Betting for protection is a concept Jonathan “apestyles” Van Fleet covers in a video on check-raising the flop from his Back to Basics Webinar Bundle.

Let’s say you open from early position with A♥J♠ and the button calls. You both have 60 big blinds effective.

The flop falls 5♣6♠8♦, you c-bet, and they call. The turn is the J♥.

Both straight and gutshot draws are on board. We opt to check with a plan to check-raise for protection in case overcards or cards which complete straights land on the river. But how big should our size be in order to protect our hand?

“We check-raise smaller with shallow stacks,” says apestyles. “But deeper, one reason we choose a larger sizing instead of a smaller one is the need for protection, but not quite like people think.

“It’s more about sizing up on low boards that have lots of gutshots. On a lot of turn cards, we can jam all-in or bet call.”

Here, by check-raising instead of betting again, we’re making it more expensive for the button to realise their equity with a hand like 8♠9♠, which can river two pairs, trips, and straights.

“It isn’t so much that we’re going to choose a huge sizing on [a very wet board like] j87 with two spades because we actually aren’t protecting ourselves with a huge bet, we’re just increasing the pot for their flush and straight draws.”

So what does protection really mean, and when should we do it?

“Protection only means something if you can make something with high equity fold, otherwise it’s value.”

In our example, if we get an extra bet out of 8♠9♠ but then deny its equity with our check-raise for protection, that’s a job well done.