Playing the Turn and River

Playing the Turn and River Most of the time you will fold your hands before the flop. Then much of the time you will also fold on the flop when there is betting action. As a result you won't see the turn or river very often (unless you play a loose style, or the table is shorthanded which means that the relative value of any hand increases). When you actually make it to the turn and river either you don't have a very strong hand but neither does anyone else so no one has bet or raised, or you have a decent hand or a good draw. I'm only going to provide some generalities here as there are substantial mathematical details to be considered and these are covered in the Odds and Outs section. if no one else is showing interest, a bet may take the pot down. This also may work on the flop if you are in late position if a scare card such as an Ace or the third card of a flush comes (especially when it comes on the river), a bet may take the pot down. This is more likely to work if you have only one opponent, or you have thinking opponents who realize that it's more difficult to bluff multiple opponents so therefore you must not be bluffing when you have a big hand, the turn and river are the time to really work on building the pot with raises or check-raises because we should always be making our bet sizes relative to the size of the pot, the turn and river bets will be large because the pot keeps getting multiplied. When you have a medium strength hand (see here in the blog for more discussion on hand strength) you need to guess which scenario is most likely. You: probably have the best hand (bet or call or raise) probably don't have the best hand but can make your opponent fold (bluff, or semi-bluff the flop or turn with draws) maybe have the best hand and your opponent probably won't fold (check, call, or possibly make a small blocking bet) Some things to remember from other sections: be concerned if a passive player bets or raises be sometimes willing to call an aggressive player down since they will often have a weak hand that they are overvaluing or they will be bluffing bet large enough to charge players who have draws if they want to chase don't chase draws yourself unless your opponent gives you odds to continue, or you believe that they will always give you lots of chips if you do make your draw	Introduction Styles and hands - Player Style descriptions - Tight/Aggressive style - Starting Hands - Video - Playing the flop - Playing the turn and river Odds and Outs - Count your Outs - Pot Odds - Odds on the Turn and River - Using Percentages - Bet sizing, expressed versus implied odds Rules and terms - How to play a game - Poker hand rankings - Terminology and definitions For futher study - No Limit Hold’em starting hands; the Next Generation - My Aces got cracked! - Can I fold KK preflop? - How to play JJ? - Playing AK, Big Slick - Should I move up to avoid the bad players? Part I - Way ahead / Way behind - What is ABC poker?


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