Flops

You’ve got the nuts

The nuts are the best possible cards at that stage of a hand and boy, do they feel good!

Betting on a hand like this is an art. The first thing you need to do is determine whether your hand can realistically be beaten on the turn and river. Remember the old saying, ‘You only lose big on the good hands’. Trips, even A-A-A, should never be considered a sure thing as they’re vulnerable to a full house. But even if you have the A high straight, you need to ask yourself if there is a flush draw on as well. If you have the flush, is there a full house (after the turn) or even straight flush on the go?

If the answer is yes and there’s a reasonable chance you could be beaten, then the best course of action is to make a sizeable bet. Something to knock off drawing hands but hopefully induce lower-made hands, like high pairs and two pairs, to call. The A high flush can be vulnerable to the full house if the board pairs on the turn and the full house if it’s made of low cards, or there are three of a kind on the board.

If the answer is no, you can’t be beaten – or it’s highly unlikely – your options are wide open. This is certainly the case for the straight flushes and – if you’re really lucky – the royal flush. Trips and even full houses can be beaten, so judge the game situation for yourself to access what level of risk you’re willing to take to earn the maximum from these hands. If you’ve read the table and know you’ve got a highly aggressive player in with you then you can try to tease him out with a bet that looks weak. This is also one case where slow-playing is actually a good option. Simply checking or placing a low bet may let someone make an inferior hand on the turn or induce a big bluff, either of which should pay off handsomely.

You’ve hit big

By ‘big’ we mean more than high pair. We’re talking two pair, trips, full houses, straights and flushes. Get a hand like this and your heart is bound to flutter. All the more reason to take a deep breath, relax and try to get a handle on what is really going on. In normal play, your main concern is going to be how to go about extracting the most amount of chips on your big hand – but remember, just because you’ve hit big doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t think about defence.

The first thing you need to do is take a look at what potential hands could develop and beat you – or already be beating you. Let’s look at a hand, shall we...

You’re holding

and the flop comes...

Two things are obvious – one, you’ve got a great hand. Two, someone could already be beating you with a straight or beat you on the turn or river with another heart on a flush draw.

We’ve deliberately thrown up a particularly tricky hand here to illustrate a point. Unless you’ve got ‘the nuts’ (the highest possible hand that could be made from the cards showing on the table) you cannot take it for granted that you’re winning. Having a great hand up against an even better one is one of the worst places to be in poker and it can be almost impossible to avoid losing a lot of chips in these situations. But you can take steps to avoid losing them cheaply.

Assuming no other large bets are made before it’s your turn, there are, broadly speaking, three courses of action you can take when you hit a hand like this:

Make a huge bet?

Betting the maximum at this point in a limit game makes sense because you want to squeeze the most chips you can from your hand. Get a caller and you’ll know to be on guard for made straights/straight draws and flush draws. It’s in a no-limit game that things get tougher.

Oversized bets (over-bets) are the trademark of the beginner poker player – especially in no-limit games. With all the pressure and uncertainty facing the newbie the temptation to show supreme confidence and ‘go for the big one’ can get the better of you. But looking carefully at the example above, I think you’ll agree that you’d be wise to take your time before making a big move.

A massive bet – all-in or a multiple of the pot in a tourney or four to five times the big blind in a low stakes cash game – at this point is likely to produce one of two results: 1) everyone folds and you take a small pot in exchange for risking all your chips; 2) you get a caller with a made hand that’s better than yours and you feel like an idiot!

Slow-play?

Lots of players like to slow-play and, in the right circumstances, it can pay off in a big way. Slow-playing is deliberately disguising a very strong hand by not betting or betting small in the hope that another player will make a weaker hand and call your bigger bets on the turn and/or river. This a dangerous practice – especially when you don’t have the nuts and, in the example above, it’s downright suicidal. Giving other players the chance to draw free cards on a straight or flush draw when you have a made set is a recipe for disaster. Inevitably your opponent will make their hand, put in a big bet and you’ll feel compelled to call because you’ve got such a good hand – and make his day.

Make a considered bet?

You’re holding an over-pair

Let’s say you’re holding a big pair (like pocket 10’s or bigger) and you’ve made a standard raise pre-flop to chase out the garbage.

Obviously you’d love to make trips, but that’s unlikely and a good second best is that the board comes down with no over-cards (cards higher than your pair – so in the case of pocket 10’s that’s J, Q, K and A). In this ‘second best’, chances are you’re winning at this point (your biggest danger is that a smaller pocket pair has his trips). Now you want to mop up with a strong bet (but not so strong that you could be trapped by someone with a better hand) – avoiding the possibility of an over-card appearing on the turn or river to hurt your position. In normal play this is no time to slow-play.

You’re holding top pair

If you flop top pair, then it’s time to be happy – it’s a good place to be.

The key to playing top pair, like any other hand, is to assess any possible dangers and act accordingly. Could someone be drawing to the flush? Could someone be hanging in with ace big hoping to hit? Is it a big pair? How strong is your kicker? A bet that’s about the size of the pot should either win it for you or, if there’s a caller, inform you that there’s someone else out there with strength.

You have two over-cards

Let’s say you limped into a pot with a hand like...

and the flop has come down...

You’ve missed the flop, but the hand isn’t necessarily dead.

The key to playing over-cards on the flop is being able to see another card either cheaply or for free. Under normal circumstance you don’t want to be putting any bets in but a small bet from a loose player might well be worth calling. Be wary though – in an un-raised pot and a raggy flop, loose players and those playing the blinds can often hook up unpromising opening hands. In the example above the big blind in particular could be playing 8-2 or something else equally unpredictable.

You’re holding middle pair

Hitting middle pair is like being in limbo. You’ve hit on the flop, so fortune has smiled on you – but on the other hand, you’re acutely aware that you could well be beaten.

If someone bets big in front of you, then it probably indicates top pair – act accordingly and throw the hand away. If no one’s acted before you, a modest bet might be in order. This will give you information about the quality of your hand without risking a lot of chips, and may just take the pot there and then. High pair or better will probably raise, and tells you that you’re probably beat. If someone calls, it may indicate a flush or straight draw (though look out for slow-play), or top pair with a poor kicker.

You’re holding bottom pair

This is tricky – you’ve hit on the flop but it isn’t all that.

As a rule, in normal play, the best thing that can happen to you here is to see the turn for free and hope for trips or two pair to make this into a hand that’s actually worth investing in. A bet, effectively a bluff, with this hand is much better than a call – the bluff at least creates the illusion of strength. In other words, play these and you’re delving into a murky world.

Many top players say that they play bottom pairs on feel – relying on their instincts to tell them to play it in certain situations. If you’re not keen to risk your money on a hunch, or are worried that you could be outplayed, fold and save your money for a more promising situation.

You’re on a draw

Flopping an open-ended straight or four parts of a flush draw always produces a tingle.

If you flop a big draw, there are two schools of thought on how to play it. Both are valid, so choose the method which best suits your style and the temperament of the table you’re playing on.

The first option you have is to check the draw hoping to get a free card to make your hand. Then, if you hit, you can bet and raise with confidence. This tends to suit more passive or tight styles of play.

Option two is to be aggressive and bet. This is the style that more and more players are using today, especially on flush draws. The theory is that you may just win the hand there and then – if not then you’ve still built a higher pot if you hit. Of course the downside of this strategy is that if you don’t make your hand you’ve likely lost your bet.

Ultra-aggressive no-limit players often play draws like they were made hands, making huge bets or moving all-in. This all action approach does sometimes works but, like all super-aggressive play, it can also blow up in your face.

It’s very common for beginners to overvalue draws – especially flush draws – and get burned by calling big bets with them. For example, few seem to understand that the odds of completing a flush with two of a kind in your hand and two more on the board are only about one in three. That’s after you’ve paid to see the turn AND the river.(if you don’t believe us, count out the remaining cards of that suit yourself). Understanding both pot odds and the chances of straights and flushes being made in different circumstances will give you a big edge when playing these hands.

Ace-big that doesn’t hit

OK, so you’ve been dealt a tasty little number like...

You’ve made an aggressive pre-flop raise of three times the big blind, you’ve got a caller and the flop comes...

That’s not what you asked for! This is a situation that you should get used to when playing ace big – it’s going to happen more often than not (actually, pre-flop, the odds are about 50/50 that you’ll hit either of them before the river).

What to do next will depend a lot on the game situation and attitude of the table. In normal play, your pre-flop raise probably got rid of all but one or two other players – that’s good because the fewer players in the game, the less likely it is that anyone else hit. If you’re head-to-head it’s just as likely that your opponent missed as you did.

Calling bets in this situation is tricky and generally unadvisable – though you certainly may want to call a small bet from a loose player. If no one bets before you, you’d certainly be justified in checking as well and hoping for better on the turn, or...

Thing is that the flop illustrated above probably hasn’t helped your opponent out either. Unless he’s playing a pocket pair, you may well be winning. So you would be equally justified in making another bet – at least matching your original pre-flop raise. Think about this bet as both making a statement and asking a question: “I’m strong as ever, has anything changed for you?”. If the answer comes in the form of a mountain of chips being pushed into the middle of the table, you’d be wise to beat a hasty retreat. If it’s called, then hope for the best on the turn and be ready to bail if your hand doesn’t improve.

Know when to fold ’em

Ace-big, especially A-K can be very hard cards to put down, even if you haven’t hit. Remember, if you haven’t matched either card all you’re holding is A high – any lousy pair beats you. It’s correct to play these cards aggressively but try to avoid over-committing and understand that, as the flop, turn, and river come and you haven’t hit, the value of A-big plummets.