The turn is a great place to get control of the pot or decide to get out of the hand. With continuation betting becoming second nature for so many online players, the turn card is where you usually find out who is serious about continuing with their hand.

If you feel like you had the best hand on the flop then you should continue with a bet on the turn to build the pot. If you suspect that your opponent has a drawing hand such as a flush draw then you really want them to pay for it to see another card.

Ideally you want them to just fold their hand on the turn, but if they are chasing their flush or straight make sure you make them pay for it by betting at least 2/3 of the pot. On the turn the only have 4:1 odds of making the flush on the river so they would be paying more then they should be to chase the flush, so in the long run you will make money.
If you have a medium strength hand you should probably continue to bet on the turn. However, if you are re raised on the turn you have an important decision to make.  For example, let’s say you are holding A-K of clubs and the flop comes Ks, 7d, 8d. You are under the gun with 1 other opponent involved in the pot which is the button. You have top pair and top kicker so can assume you probably have the best of it on the flop and make a continuation bet and get called. The turn card shows a Jd.
What should you do in this spot? You still have top pair top kicker but any potential flush draw has hit and there is also the possibility for a straight. Don’t give up on your hand just yet. I think you should make a turn bet but if you face a re-raise on the turn then you have to consider folding because your TPTK is not looking so good anymore. The button could likely be playing pre flop with a hand like 9-10 suited or made some better flush draw.

What you have to try and identify is how loose and aggressive the other player is. How likely would they be to make a move in this spot with air? Do they always have a made hand in this spot. If they only re-raise with the best of it on the turn, then it’s an easy fold, but always take your time to think about it. If villain is trying to bluff the hand, they will more then likely do it on the turn instead of leaving it to the river, because on the river there is so much money in the pot that you are committed to calling most river bets, so always be aware of opponents trying to make a move on the turn.
If you bet out on the turn and the other player calls your bet, it will often just go check and check on the river and you will see a showdown. Make sure that you have showdown value when making a turn bet otherwise it was pointless staying involved in the pot.

So far in this article it has only been suggested that you bet on the turn if you think you had the best of it on the flop and the turn card is not scary. If I have a very strong hand on the flop such as flopping a set, then a check/raise on the turn is a possibility to build a bigger pot, however doing this will depend on what range of hands you put your opponent on. If you think they have a weak hand, it may be worthwhile just check/calling the turn bet, and trying to induce a bluff on the river because your opponent may suspect weakness. Never get too predictable with your turn play and always change it up to be deceptive.

There are two things you want to be looking for when looking to continue on the flop. If you have followed the tips of good pre flop play, then you are only getting involved in flops with a much narrower range of hands so you are hitting many flops with the best of it. A great benefit of having a tight image at the table is that often times even when you don’t hit on the flop you can make a continuation bet on the flop and take it down because the other player(s) suspect you have the best hand. You want to use this strategy sparingly, but you definitely want to make use of it because you will not always be flopping monster hands.

Deciding whether or not to make a continuation bet has a lot to do with the board texture, identifying the other players range of hands, and the playing style of the other players involved in the pot. If they are calling stations and will call your bet chasing gut shot straight draws or even with A high and you have not hit the board, then continuation betting makes no sense because you will not get them off their hands and you don’t have a made hand.
Although continuation betting should make up a big part of your flop play, its not always the ideal play if you think you have the best of it and you want to extract more money from your opponents.
For example, let’s say for example you are playing an Ax hand with a high kicker. If the A hits on the flop and you are in early position then it would be a good idea to check raise in this spot. Betting the flop will just get the other player to fold their hand because the A will scare them, but if you let them think that you are weak and check they may consider continuation betting themselves, and you can then re-raise them. They may not be continuation betting with air they could possibly have a draw type hand so you want to make them pay for it to see the turn card.
Another good spot to vary up your play with a check raise is with strong draw hands. If you flop the nut flush and open ended straight draw on the flop, then a check raise in early position would be a good move to build the pot because you have so many outs to improve your hand with. Even if you don’t hit on the turn you can bet the turn and usually take it down.

One of the best ways to improving your game is to make adjustments to your pre flop play. You want to be folding a lot pre flop. In other words you don’t want to be involved in as many hands. The main benefit of tightening up your pre flop play is that you won’t be involved in as many tricky spots. If you really like to play poker this can be really difficult because you want to always be involved in the action, but you need discipline with your pre flop play if you want to consistently have winning sessions.

What starting hands you should open with has a lot to do with your position. You should only be opening with a raise in early position with very strong hands because you don’t have position. Another important factor is how many other players are at the table. How you play early position is very different if you are playing at a full ring 9-player table as opposed to a 6-max ring game. On a full ring table if you open with a raise UTG, you potentially have 8 other players who could call or even re-raise you. Where’s opening with a raise at a 6-max table, you have much fewer players to worry about.

In addition to having good table selection where you want to find tables where there are weak players, the other single most important factor for a winning poker player is to play well pre flop. The problem most beginners make is they get involved in too many pots with mediocre hands because they raise with a wide range of hands. Most players will not play well before the flop so you want to exploit this. They will want to see a flop with any 2 cards so you want to try and exploit this weakness by trying to get them heads up when you have position on them. This pre flop strategy is pretty easy to explain but psychologically it can take a lot of discipline if you want to master it.

Most poker books will have a chapter that discusses pre flop play and what are good starting hands. As a general rule of thumb, in early position you want to open with a raise with 10-10+, A-10+ and possibly a few other hand ranges. Your starting hand range is also dependant on your opponents. If they are calling stations and involved in many pots, you want to try and narrow your starting hand range to exploit their weakness, as already mentioned above. Medium pocket pairs and suited connectors can also be good hands to open with in early position, but there usually better cards to play in multi-way pots in late position.

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