Playing the Flop
Tip #11 – Playing the flop in Texas Hold ‘em
The flop is the defining moment in Texas Holdem. When the flop has come, you must either have a good hand that is likely to win as it is, or a hand that is likely to improve to a winner. Usually you need at least a top pair with a good kicker, or a strong draw, like a flush draw (FD) or open ended straight draw (OESD) to keep playing against many opponents. Against two or one opponents you may want to bet out with only middle pair or bottom pair, since there is a decent chance that all your opponents have missed the flop totally.
If you miss the flop, you should almost always fold. This is sometimes hard for beginning players to get. Since you have been told how important your starting hand is you may be reluctant to drop your hand when it doesn’t improve on the flop. Starting hands like AK can get you into a lot of trouble when they miss the flop.
If the flop gives you a strong hand however, you should almost always bet and raise strongly and make your opponents pay for their possible draws.
When you don’t have a made hand but a hand that may improve at the turn, your odds to hit the draw compared to the relation between the bet you face and the pot size decides whether you should call.
If you are not sure that you will win even if you hit, the pot must be a lot larger to justify a call. There are many situations where a draw becomes unprofitable to call. For instance, your opponent may be betting with a weaker holding that may not necessarily pay you off even if you hit your draw, so you are not getting the implied odds to call.
Mastering flop strategy, or any other part of the game for that matter, takes experience, but hopefully you have now learned a few important lessons that will greatly improve your game. Even if you are playing with free money or used the best UB referral code you still want to play your best on the flop. Important things to keep in mind when playing the flop:
- Drop your hand if you don’t either have a holding with a good chance to win as it is, or a hand that is likely to improve to a winner. It doesn’t matter how pretty the hand looked before the flop.
- Almost always play your made hands aggressively on the flop by betting and raising with them! You want the other players either to fold or to pay as much as possible for their draw.
- When you try to make a draw, make sure that you take into account the other players possible holdings. You don’t want to draw to a loser!
August 8th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
[...] for the flop, to call a bet on the turn card you usually need a decent made hand or a strong draw. Keep playing [...]