Double-Barreling

The turn is the one street that most players at the lower limits have trouble with. The problem stems from players making plays on the flop without a plan for future streets. For example, they bet with KT on Ac6s5s and don’t know what to do on various turn cards. Whether you check, bet, call or raise, plan your actions before the next card falls. You generally want to fire again on the turn if either of these conditions exists:

1. Your equity improves
2. A scare card hits

Let’s say you Continuation Bet the flop as the pre-flop raiser and pick up a draw on the turn (flush draw, open-end, gutshot + overcard). Bet again to try to take down the dead money in the pot. A second barrel will look strong and increase your chances of winning without a showdown. On boards where a turn puts more draws out there, I will bet the river as well.

For example:
You bet with Kd 10d on a flop of Ad 6s 5s. The turn is a Jd. You bet again and get called. You should seriously consider bluffing the river.

The turn creates a lot of draws. Your Opponent is likely to have a made weak hand or a draw. If he had a strong hand, he would’ve raised the turn to protect it. Therefore, a river bluff is profitable.

A great turn card that allows you to fire the river is an 8d (or any card that puts a straight out there) because it often gives Your Opponent a pair with a draw that he will continue with on the turn and fold on the river, giving you more dead money.

Another example:
Suppose you open-raise to $3 with As 3s
from the button and a good player calls from the SB. The flop is Js 8d 3h and he check-calls your c-bet. The turn is any spade besides a J or 8. He checks to you. What do you do?

Bet again. Your Opponent will occasionally show up with sets and two pair here, but his range consists primarily of medium pairs and straight draws. You can safely exclude most overpairs from his range because he would 3-bet preflop or check-raise the flop. A turn bet would fold out 3x, 8x, and pocket pairs below a jack that don’t make a set. More importantly, you now have 14 outs (3 Aces, 2 threes, 9 spades) to make the best hand.

Important Note: A turn J or 8 isn’t a good barrel card because it narrows your value-betting range to trips and sometimes overpairs. That’s a very small part of your range. A good player will realize this and call again with a stubborn pair. Sometimes, he’ll have a boat or trips here as well. Since you have showdown value against open-end draws and gutshots, checking behind is an option.

Posted by Joel on May 10 2010. Filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry