In Lesson 8, 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!