In poker, players form sets of five playing cards, called hands, according to the rules of the game. Each hand has a rank, which is compared against the ranks of other hands participating in the showdown to decide who wins the pot. In high games, like Texas hold 'em and seven-card stud, the highest-ranking hands win. Did you scroll all this way to get facts about poker card protector? Well you're in luck, because here they come. There are 372 poker card protector for sale on Etsy, and they cost $21.74 on average. The most common poker card protector material is plastic. The most popular color? You guessed it: black.

So when do we bet for protection?

Poker protection meaning

This is a cross betweenvalue-betting and bluffing – usually referred to as a type of thin value bet. You bet in a situation where you don’t necessarily expect to get called by worse very often, but your opponent’s range still has a decent amount of equity vs your hand. As a result – your opponent folding is considered a good outcome despite your bet being for “value”.

Protection bets can be considered a type of “merge” bet. Sometimes worse hands will call, but sometimes better hands will fold.

Bubble Protection Poker

Consider this example:

Poker Card Covers

Protection Poker

Effective stacks are 100bb. You are in the CO and open raise to 3bb with 44 . SB calls. BB folds.

The flop is k73. BB checks. Hero bets 4bb into the 7bb pot.

Disconnect Protection Pokerstars

Poker

(By betting hero is “protecting” his hand from anything with 2 overcards. Hero does not necessarily expect a call from these hands (although it will happen sometimes) – but he doesn’t want to check back and allow them free chances to hit. Occasionally villain will call with worse like a 3x or an OOP float like AJ, but occasionally he will also fold better. Some villains will muck better pocket pairs and 7x. It’s not really correct to refer to this play as a pure “bluff” however, because hero still expects to have the best hand a decent amount on such a dry board.

Folds from both better/worse hands plus the occasional spot of thin-value make betting here for protection profitable. The bet also makes it less likely hero will get bluffed himself at a later point in the hand.