Lesson 9: Betting or Raising on the Flop
In , we looked at some hints for playing pre-flop
poker. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at the flop itself.
Betting on the flop
If you see the flop and you are genuinely undecided between checking
and betting, you should usually choose to bet. By betting you won’t give
away any free cards so you won’t get beat on the river by a player who
would have folded. Also, the pot will be bigger if you do win.
If you flop a good hand your decision to bet depends on a number of
things: the strength of your hand, how many players are left in the
hand, the chances of getting an over card on the turn or river and, of
course, your estimation of what your opponents are holding. Your
decision should be based on all of these factors.
You should bet your good hands for value but you should also
occasionally check to vary your play and to keep your opponents
guessing.
Raising on the flop
The first thing you should remember about raising on the flop,
especially in a low-limit game, is that it will rarely force out any
player who flopped any kind of hand at all or any kind of flush or
straight draw. When you do raise on the flop, what you are doing is
building a pot and making your opponents pay to draw out on you.
You should raise and re-raise if you flop top pair with top kicker
and think you have the best hand at that point. You are the favorite to
win the hand against any single straight or flush draw, and also against
any other player with top pair and a weaker kicker.
A side benefit to playing your hand this way is that when there is
also a flush draw on the board, your opponents won’t know which of the
two hands you have: the top pair or the flush draw. This doubt helps you
as you will be called more often on the river when the flush card
doesn’t come.
Always play with caution, however. If there’s a lot of raising and
re-raising all on the flop, it’s likely that someone has flopped a set
or two pair and already has you beat. You also have to be careful if one
of the raisers is in the blind. They could have anything in the pocket:
maybe they got a miracle flop and are now betting to protect it.
Enjoy and good luck!
