Flop Turn River Meaning
- It’s also important to remember that the flop is an inexpensive betting round. The betting limits double on the turn and river so it’s common to check and call on the flop when you’re in early position with a strong hand and keep as many of your opponents in the hand as possible. Your plan is to check-raise on the turn when the bets double.
- Probing is only possible on the turn or river. In this article, we’re going to discuss five different spots that will help you recognize when to check and when to probe bet. Quick intro to probing. Often, when the preflop aggressor chooses not to continuation bet (c-bet) on the flop, you can profitably probe on the turn with a wide range of.
- The final card dealt face up is called the river or sometimes fifth street. The same exact rules that applied to the turn and the flop and turn will apply to the river. This will be where the winner is determined if no one folds as well.
- After the flop betting round ends, a single community card (called the turn or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river or fifth street) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary. In the third and fourth betting rounds, the stakes double.
The typical definition of a structured hold'em game is a fixed amount for bets and raises before the flop and on the flop, and then twice that amount on the turn and river. Example: a $2-$4 structured hold'em game: bets and raises of $2 before the flop and on the flop; $4 bets and raises on the turn and river.
Table Of Contents
What to Do When a Player Bets the Flop and Checks the Turn?
Many players routinely bet the flop with a good hand. Then, when the turn comes, they check. All the time.
They choose to call because they don't want to be raised by someone on the turn or river (when the bets are doubled).
I find this habit is prevalent in lower limit games. If you play mid-limit games, this flaw is not nearly as common.
In any case, it is worth considering, as some mid-limit and high-limit tables attract more than a few players who keep this behaviour in their game plan.
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Make Observations
Flop Turn River Meaning Black And White
As a PokerNews reader, I'm sure you know that looking at how your opponents play is of the best poker tips to follow if you intend to go far.
In the following scenario, you are playing no-limit hold'em with a few regulars and a new face (we'll call him Player 'X').
You don't know much about Player 'X' — so you need to keep your eyes open and try to take mental notes on his style of play.
As the game develops, this hand happens:
- Player 'X' has and the flop is .
- Player 'X' bets the flop and two other players call.
- On the turn, a appears on the board.
- Player 'X' checks.
- As soon as one of the other players decides to bet, Player 'X' calls.
- On the river, Player 'X' checks and calls again.
- At the showdown, Player 'X' shows .
Taking things out of context, Player 'X' would appear to be a 'weak' or 'weak-tight' player.
But — is this the correct assumption to make?
What if this was a recurring behaviour? What if more observation would help you recognise a pattern and give you precious insights on your opponent's hands and style of play?
To discover if this an isolated episode, lock on to Player 'X' and watch how he plays the same situation in future hands.
If this behavioural pattern continues, it's time to implement the right poker strategy to exploit his weakness and use all this knowledge to your advantage.
SEE ALSO: I Played a Tournament Without Looking at the Cards. And This Happened
Why Does He Do That?
Keep in mind the motivation for this behaviour.
If he is weak and 'tight'ish', he is not betting the flop and checking the turn simply because he's given up on a bluff or thinks he has been outdrawn on the turn.
He is afraid of being raised on the turn or river when the bets are doubled.
As such, he checks with the intention of calling all the way to the showdown. It's usually that simple.
How to play Against This Sort of Opponent?
Whenever you find yourself at the table with a Player 'X', you should use your observations and findings to implement two important changes into your game plan.
First, you can call with more marginal hands preflop. In fact, you can do that on the flop as well when you are in a late position and he is sitting within two or three seats of your right.
READ ALSO: How to Play Marginal Hands in Poker
Let's look at an example.
If you have 6-7 off-suit in a late position, you should probably not play this hand unless a big multi-way pot is brewing.
However, if it is a medium-size pot and your Player 'X' calls preflop, you may want to call.
If you hit any sort of draw on the flop, there is a good chance that this opponent will give you a free card on the turn.
This is why you can play more drawing hands against this sort of opponent, even if your draw is not stunning.
Need another example?
Let's say that there are five callers (including yourself and this opponent) before the flop and you have 6-7 off-suit.
The flop is K-8-4 and it's checked to this opponent. He bets.
As a result, you must call one small bet to win the six small bets in the pot.
Additionally, one or two other opponents may call behind you on the flop. But let's say you are only getting pot odds of 6-1 on the flop.
Should you call?
The chances of hitting a 5 on the turn or river are approximately 5-1.
However, if you fail to hit the five on the turn, you will probably have to fold, even if you called the flop.
Your odds of hitting a 5 on the river are 10-1 against and you probably won't be getting those sorts of pot odds on the turn.
SEE ALSO: WPT GTO Trainer Hand Review: Three-Betting From the Big Blind
So in reality, you are only calling on the flop to see if you can spike a 5 on the turn, since you won't continue to the river if you miss.
Therefore, the only odds of significance are the odds against hitting a 5 on the turn only.
Since you are approximately 10-1 against hitting a 5 on the turn card, you are not really getting the correct price to call on the flop.
However, if you know that your opponent will bet the flop, then check the turn and give you a free card, you should call the flop by all means.
The odds of hitting a 5 on either the turn or river are approximately 5-1 and since you will be getting a look at both cards for the price of a call on the flop, you can take those 5-1 odds because you are getting 6-1 from the pot, not to mention the large implied odds on offer and the possibility that some other early position opponents will call the flop behind you thereby increasing your pot odds.
This approach comes with three caveats based on the same reasoning.
- If this particular opponent bets again on the turn, you must fold. If it seems that this opponent is unreliable, or becomes unreliable, at automatically 'betting the flop then checking the turn' you must abandon this strategy.
- If another player at the table picks up on this opponent's behavioural pattern as you have and starts messing up your plan by putting in fancy check-raises on the flop and betting our of position on the turn, stay away. Wait for the right time. This fancy player may soften up this opponent further, resulting in more free cards in subsequent pots.
- If this opponent is in an early position, this strategy won't be as effective. If he bets the flop and checks the turn, middle and late position players between you and him are probably going to bet the turn more often which disrupts your free card strategy.
Aside from the free card aspect of this sort of opponent, you should also never try to bluff or semi-bluff him on the turn.
SEE ALSO: How to Play Pocket Aces in Poker
In my opinion and experience, I have won much more money from players giving me free cards (when they shouldn't) than I have won by semi-bluffing.
This comes back to the motivation for his behaviour: he has a good hand but checks the turn to avoid being raised when the bets are doubled.
Therefore, he intends to call to the showdown and probably has a good enough hand to do so. Don't bluff a caller.
When to Use This Approach
Finally, you should use this bet the flop and check the turn strategy yourself when you are heads-up against a maniac with a reasonably good hand.
Let's say you have A-Q. The maniac raises, you call and it's heads up.
The flop is A-8-6. If you bet here (which I think you should), he will probably raise. In this case, you should simply check and call the turn and river.
This way you avoid losing big bets when you are genuinely behind and avoid being moved off the winning hand.
This article was originally published by Matthew Rochman in July 2005. Last update: February 2020.
Before the flop the only information available to you is position, the value of your hand and any knowledge you might have acquired regarding the playing tendencies of your opponents. The flop is the defining moment in hold’em. In one smooth motion the dealer will reveal almost seventy two percent of your entire hand. Once the flop is delivered, everyone has far more information and it is now that you need to quickly plan how to proceed.
That decision is made up of many components. You have to compare the odds of making the best hand with the payoff offered by the expected size of the pot. But the mathematical odds against making your hand compared with the pot odds is not all you have to consider. It’s further complicated because you must also account for the game being loose or tight, passive or aggressive, and whether your opponents are skilled or unskilled players. This is referred to as the game’s texture. If, for instance, six players are regularly seeing the flop then you’re in a loose game which means if you did not hit the flop someone else has.
Common Flop Situations
In limit hold’em you will need to be willing to muck the majority of hands you are dealt but when you get to see a flop then your hand will fall into one of the following categories:
- You have a very strong hand (e.g. flopped a set or a full house)
- You have a good hand hand (e.g. top pair, top kicker)
- You have a hand that might be the best hand (e.g. second pair)
- You have a hand that is probably behind
- You have a drawing hand
- You have nothing and no draw
The texture of the flop, your position and your opponents’ likely holdings, position and tendencies will influence how you play a hand. But let’s look at each of these common situations and examine how you might proceed on the flop.
You have a very strong hand
With a very strong hand your main concern is how to win the most money. Much of the time, you want to give your opponents a chance to catch up — to make a good but not great hand — that will tie them to the pot for future betting rounds. While there may be some chance that your opponent will catch a miraculous card to beat you, chances are they won’t, and that if you can keep them in the pot on a draw and nothing more substantial than hope, you figure to win much more than you would if you put the hammer down early in the hand and they folded to your display of power.
Another application of this skill is being aware of players behind you when you have a very strong hand. Raising is not always the best play if you will clear out all of the players yet to call. Of course making decisions that can increase your win rate may also carry a greater risk of losing in your attempt to gain an extra bet. However, done over the long term, these moves will show a profit.
Let’s look at an example. Suppose you’re in the small blind with and you get to see a flop with three other players. You flop a set and check. It’s checked around to the player on the button, who bets.
What’s your best move? If you raise then you’re announcing that you have a very big hand. In this situation a check-raise is overplaying the hand and more money can be made by calling quietly, allowing somebody to bet the turn, and then coming in for a raise. Smooth calling also motivates any of the other players into calling on the flop as well.
Good limit hold’em players are always thinking about how to extract the maximum value each time they are involved in a hand. The difference between a novice and an accomplished player, playing the same winning hand, is the difference in a mind set of “raise, bet, bet” for the novice and a thought pattern of “How can I maximize my win for this hand” for the accomplished player.
It’s also important to remember that the flop is an inexpensive betting round. The betting limits double on the turn and river so it’s common to check and call on the flop when you’re in early position with a strong hand and keep as many of your opponents in the hand as possible. Your plan is to check-raise on the turn when the bets double. This of course assumes that the board is relatively safe and you aren’t worried about any draws that may be lurking.
You have a good hand
Flopping top pair with top kicker is a common hold’em situation, especially when you’re holding a hand like and connect with the flop. Now you have either a pair of aces with a king kicker or a pair of kings with an ace kicker. If you’re against a lone opponent who hasn’t flopped two pair or better, you have him dominated to the point where he probably has only three outs to beat you. You’re hoping he has top pair too, albeit with a lesser kicker. You can come out betting and if your opponent also has top pair he’s going to call you (and he’s going to lose).
If you bet the flop and he calls and the turn card is not scary, you have additional choices too. If your opponent is aggressive, you can check the turn if first to act and raise if he bets. If he is a more passive player — one who is more prone to call that to initiate aggressive action — you can bet into him. If he is first to act, you can raise if he bets or bet if he checks.
You have the same options available to you on the river too. After all, a player with a very good hand is likely to do his raising on the turn rather than wait until the river. So if your opponent does not raise the turn and the river card doesn’t complete any obvious draw, you can bet again on the river and hope your opponent calls you again.
But somewhere around here is a line you have to be wary of stepping over, and if you’re not aware of potential danger then you will lose some big posts where you might have been better off folding. Weaker players, to the detriment of their bankrolls, often become married to their top pair hands. And that’s because they tend to play only the intrinsic value of their own hands without regard for what their opponents might be holding because of how aggressively or passively they’ve played on previous betting rounds.
An example is open raising in middle position with a hand such as and having four players call, including the big blind. Now if the flop comes down and the big blind leads out, some players will reason that they hold top pair, top kicker and will usually pop it even with all those players behind them.
This is a costly play in limit as players tend to play high cards. There could already be a made hand out there and if not certainly some very strong draws. In limit hold’em tight is right and this would not be an instance to show aggression.
You have a hand that might be the best hand
With a hand like second pair, you have to slow down a bit (unless you are up against one opponent and think you can bet or raise him off his hand), particularly if you have more than one opponent in the pot with you. If you are holding and the flop is , and you have a couple of opponents, you probably want to check and see what transpires. If there’s a bet and a call, it’s easy to fold this hand. If there’s a bet, a fold, and now it’s your turn to act, you need to be aware of your opponent’s level of aggression as well as cognizant of whether there was any raising before the flop — which suggests someone is holding an ace. When that’s the case you probably want to save your money and get out now.
You have a hand that is probably behind
If you have a hand that is behind but you also have a draw to go along with it, you should keep on playing and see if your hand improves on the turn. Suppose you have and the flop is , you might have the best pair but your hand has a significant amount of value from its flush draw. You can play aggressively because you have a pair and a draw and a number of ways to win, or you can see if you can improve your hand inexpensively on the turn.
But most of the time you sense your hand is behind you won’t have a potential draw that can bail you out on a later betting round. When that’s the case — when you are running behind and only a miracle can save you — your strategy is simple. If you don’t believe you can win by bluffing, just toss your hand away and save your money. Remember, money saved spends just as well as money won, and saving a dollar is just as valuable to you as winning one. It might not feel as good — after all, winning feels great — but that saved dollar will go just as far as a dollar you won.
You have a drawing hand
With just a draw, you probably need to improve to win unless you figure you can bluff your opponent off of a better hand. But if you don’t think you can bluff your way to victory, just quietly call and hope you get lucky and complete your draw. If you do, you can allow your aggressive opponents to do your betting for you, or against more passive players, you can come out betting the turn and force your opponents to make a decision based on whether they believe you made your hand or are bluffing.
Limit poker relies very heavily on knowing your price and the odds. Indeed, with 2 or 3 players in the pot with you, you want to make your flush as inexpensively as possible, because the ploy of raising now and coming out with what amounts to a continuation bet on the turn is not going to drive all your opponents away, so it’s not going to win the pot for you. But if you have 4, 5, or even more opponents in the pot with you, you’re probably getting the right price on that betting round alone to make betting worthwhile. After all, if you’re getting 5-to-1 on your money going from the flop to the turn, and that exceeds the odds against making your flush on the next card, it pays to build the pot. Another advantage of doing so is that it might cause some of your adversaries’ to become committed to the pot and pay you off on the river too.
If you have only one opponent you can try raising because it gives you additional ways to win. If you can represent a big hand in addition to having outs for a flush draw, then why not do it. You may well win the pot simply by betting. It all boils down to the number of opponents and how likely they are to call and play against you. In addition to all of that, raising on the flop can buy you a free card on the turn.
One thing you have to stay away from is when you have a flush draw is to make a habit of just calling until you make the flush, and then betting, because your wise opponents are going to realize that when a third suited card comes and you bet, you have a flush, and they’ll get out of your way. The semi-bluff is a great play, which is betting with a flush draw — because it gives you two chances to win. This has been talked about by everyone since David Sklansky wrote his first hold’em book 35 years ago.
Selective aggression is good. But being aggressive with a draw against a medium-sized field of players is kind of foolhardy because you’re not going to get all of them, if any, to throw their hands away, and the prize is usually not worth the game.
You have nothing and no draw
When you have no hand and no draw, your only way to win is to bluff your way to victory. Your decision comes down to how well you can read your opponent, though most of the time with no hand and no draw, the smart and easy play is to muck your hand and save your money for a better opportunity. When you have four or more opponents in a hand with you, you can be pretty much assured of the fact that if the flop didn’t favour you, it probably helped someone. It doesn’t matter which player it helped — that player is now ahead of you.
The Size of the Pot
Limit poker focuses to positive expectation and if you do not pay attention to the size of the pot, you cannot be playing the game properly because you won’t be able to properly calculate where you stand in the hand and you won’t know how to proceed. One should always be aware of the size of the pot. Small pots are easier to steal since they don’t offer opponents something worth fighting for. If the pot gets large, then semi bluffs and bluffs go way down in value because any opponent with a reasonable hand will usually call you down. Knowing this helps you decide whether to check to keep the pot small or bet and/or raise to get as much money in the pot as possible. Weaker players just play their cards and are pretty much oblivious to these type considerations.
Spotting Common Traps
Avoiding traps is a key skill that will serve you well. Always try and understand the reasoning behind an opponent’s actions. Here’s an example of a common trap set by an aggressive player who raises preflop and gets a couple of callers. After the flop a very common occurrence is “checking to the raiser.” So what does it mean when the pre-flop raiser checks too? Well, he could have missed the flop entirely, but more often than not it raises a major red flag. If you know he is aggressive and everyone checked, why would he not make a continuation bet hoping to pick up the pot right then and there? It usually means he caught so much of the flop and feels he is so far ahead that he doesn’t need to protect his hand but is hoping for someone to catch up slightly and lose more money. It amazes me how well this ploy works against weaker, more naïve players.
Conclusion
Many limit players believe they know how to play well and put their game on auto-pilot. Always know why you are betting, checking, calling or raising on the flop. If you cannot articulate a reason for your decisions at the poker table, you are not playing the game well. Always ask yourself, “Should I be involved in this pot”? Answer honestly!
Weak, beginning players primarily think about the strength of their holdings and little else. If you’re just starting out, take the above factors and begin thinking more deeply about them. Always examine the texture of the flop, the size of the pot, along with the tendencies of your opponents.These factors normally do not stand alone but must be combined to make an informed decision regarding how to play your hand. If applied well, you should see immediate improvement in your results.
Related Lessons
Flop Turn River Meaning Dictionary
By Tom 'TIME' Leonard
Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.