Explanation of Rabbit Hunting
“Rabbit hunting” is a feature both in live and online games where players request to see the remainder of the board runout after already folding.
For example, if we fold a flush draw on the turn in Hold’em, but want to see whether we would have hit, we can rabbit hunt. Good players realise that rabbit hunting is not especially relevant and is purely for the sake of satisfying curiosity, it doesn’t influence what the best play would have been in any way. Some poker rooms offer a rabbit hunt feature, but many don’t.
It has zero impact on earnings for the hand but allows players to see if they would have hit their draw (or whichever other hand) by the river.
Example of Rabbit Hunting used in a sentence -> We were forced to fold our gutshot on the flop, but according to the rabbit hunt we would have made our straight on the river.
How to Use Rabbit Hunting as Part of Your Poker Strategy
The rabbit hunt is mostly a feature designed for recreational players, allowing them to satiate their curiosity. For example, perhaps they might feel pressured into folding their gutshot but really want the satisfaction of knowing whether folding was the “right” decision.
In many cases the recreational player will feel bad if it turns out he would have caught his gutshot on the turn or river. “I knew I shouldn’t have folded, I would have won a huge pot if I had just called”. Such a thought process is a fallacy however. If calling is non-profitable in the long run, it matters little whether a draw hits this specific time. Recreational players have not conditioned themselves to think in this way however and find themselves victim to various types of results oriented thought processes.
Good players realise that rabbit hunts have no real value whatsoever.
See Also
Fish, Turn, River, Community Cards, Draw
