Playing the Turn – Texas Holdem
Acting on the turn is the hardest part of any hand since your information at this point is very sketchy and there will still be a lot of unknowns. There is no “right” way to play the turn, in that a lot of it will depend on your playing style, your opponent’s hand range, your position, and what exactly the turn card bring. One thing I will say is that having relative position against your opponent on the turn can be a deciding factor. For example, if you raise the turn out of position and then your opponent calls, then you aren’t really getting any crucial information about his holding. If things were the other way round however, and you make a raise after your opponent checked, then you have a better chance of winning the pot since it is unlikely he will call your raise plus he will be have to act first on the river.
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Double-Barrelling: If your cbet on the flop fails then you should continue representing a strong hand by double-barrelling the turn (50%-100% of the pot). This is surprisingly effective against weak opponents who have no problems calling cbets, but then have a high frequency to fold the turn and river.
If the turn brings a safe card that doesn’t complete any of my opponents draws (such as 2s on a 7d-9s-4d), then I’ll make a 70% pot-size raise and hope that my opponent folds.
Check-Raising: If I believe my opponent has a hand like TPTK, and the turn completes a potential flush/straight draw, then I’ll try representing a monster by check-raising him. I think the check-raise works best on boards like this because you can’t really afford to call a check-raise on the turn without the nuts. Unless you’re really unlucky you should be able to pull this off successfully against TPTK or two-pair most of the time. The down side is that it requires a bigger commitment of chips, and if your double-barrel bluff gets called again then you have to check/fold the river.
Check/Folding: With multiple opponents in the pot, the last thing you want to see the turn bring is a scare card that completes someone else’s hand. In pots like these, I’m letting my hand go and check/folding the turn. You can’t bluff a pot with 2 or more opponents in the pot, especially when they have a lot of perceived equity on the board after calling a cbet.
Completing your Draw: If you called your opponent’s raise on the flop and managed to complete your draw on the turn, then you should be value betting the hand at this stage. Unfortunately, a lot the time regulars will be able to tell when you’ve completed a drawing hand. To help trap regs, I like to check-raise or even give my opponent a free card on the river to bluff. You might earn an extra 10BB-20BBs by tricking your opponent to pure bluff the river.
Adjusting to Your Opponent’s Playing Style
Understanding your opponent’s game and narrowing down his holdings lays down the foundations for successful post-flop play. TAGs tend to only raise premium hands pre-flop, so on a dry board like 10-6-3 you rarely have to worry about being too far behind. You should double-barrel and bet into these players.
You’ll find it much more difficult playing against LAGs post-flop, since they have a much looser hand range and will check-raise you with J7 or 55. Luckily there aren’t a lot of good LAGs in the micro-low stakes games. The best way to combat these players is to let them do the betting and make the first move. You’ll win far more pots by floating their bets or bluff-raising them on later streets.