Introduction

• Your possibilities on the turn
  
• Why to pursue your plan
  
• Set the course for the river
  

In this article, you will learn a few things about turn play. First and foremost, you should understand what the turn is actually all about, which decisive mistakes you should avoid, and which primary goals you should pursue.

The articles concerning flop play are important prerequisites to this article, as you should have already learned of the need for coming up with a plan for your hand which you should follow through with on the turn.

The Turn as Problem Child

Many players have their problems on the turn, and regard the 3rd street as the biggest problem child. They often don't know what to do, and get carried away in unprofitable situations. How come?

Hold'em mainly lives from two factors:

• What does your opponent hold, or which cards could help him out?
• How big is the pot, and how much do you have to pay to move closer towards the showdown, or to improve your hand?

First and foremost, either you have a presentable hand and want to earn money with it; or you don't and want to get your opponent to fold. It's always a matter of the cards you and your opponent are holding, as well as the prices you have to pay for them.

On every other street, the circumstances are generally clear. Pre-flop and on the flop, you've usually hardly received any information about your opponent's hand, as the invested money for this was too little. A raise pre-flop usually costs 4 BBs, a continuation bet about 6 BBs. These bets are valuable in terms of what you can accomplish with them, but they aren't significant in light of your 100 BB stack.

On the river, the situation has changed. You've now have received many pieces of information about the hand of your opponent. There won't be any more community cards, either. Either you are ahead, or you are behind. Naturally, this doesn't make your decision any easier. You have to ask yourself if your hand is good enough for a showdown. You'll have to decide if it is good enough to place a value bet, or so bad that you should give it up, or if you should try a bluff. In return, the river is certainly the most expensive street by far, simply because bets (or calls) are made in relation to the pot, which is now at its biggest.

The turn comes right in the middle, and unfortunately presents both problems at once. You still don't know where you stand, and draws are still possible (on both sides), as another card is still pending. Often enough, the pot has already reached a substantial size, so that decisions are costing larger amounts of money. You also have the river in the back of your mind, which is sure to be expensive.

Most mistakes are made within these problem areas. The most frequent one: You become too passive. You realize that you'll inflate the pot with a sizable turn bet, and that even a 2/3rd of the pot size bet on the river would be twice as big than if you had only checked.

Many players often decide for passive play. Not because they consider it to make sense from a strategic point of view, but because they are scared of moving into a too-highly inflated pot with an eventually marginal hand. Naturally, this results in an exploitable weakness, as your opponents could often take the pot themselves with their aggression. Another reason not to play too passively: you give out free cards and let your opponents play draws cheaply.

You should avoid this mistake. On the turn, you have to play the way you deem to be correct, and pay attention to pot control when it makes sense to do so. You should learn to become a good player who is not afraid of playing with his complete stack on the table and can do so to his strategic advantage.

You should be better than the average opponent, you want decisions on the turn, and on the river, to be expensive. As long as you are ahead on average, you will win more large pots over time.

Continuing your plan after the flop: Telling your story

You learned various ways of creating a plan in the flop articles. Aside from determining where you stand with your hand, what you can accomplish with a bet/passive play, you also thought about what you would do on the turn.

Now you're there and it's time to keep selling the story you started telling on the flop. The turn card will obviously be of interest, but your basic plan for the turn was set on the flop.

Let's take another look at an example from the flop articles:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em 11$ Tourney, Big Blind is t40 (10 handed)

Stacks & Reads
UTG (t2000)
UTG+1 (t2000)
UTG+2 (t2000)
Hero (t2000)
MP2 (t2000)
MP3 (t2000)
CO (t2000) (tighter Player)
Button (t2000)
SB (t2000)
BB (t2000)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A , K
Hero raises to 160, 1 fold, CO calls 160, 3 folds

Recall from the hand analysis:

• "Your problem is that you are acting out of position now, and so you would have to check the turn in case of a call."
• "Your line should then be bet/fold, on the flop as well as on the turn."

You already made your decision for the turn. The first quote deals with a raise on the flop. You would then fold to avoid a difficult situation on the turn.

The second quote comes into play when your opponent calls. You have already planned to bet again on the turn. This was your plan on the flop, and should still be your plan on the turn.

This time the turn card itself is not very interesting. There are hardly any cards which could change in this situation. If the flush draw hits, you would hold a redraw with your K. You could even consider checking, since there is no real need to protect your hand. However, there is nothing wrong with a bet in this situation, since you not only hold a (re-)draw, but also top pair / top kicker, and you want to get value with such a hand.

It's important to be aware of the story you are selling and if your opponent is buying it. Make a plan on the flop and stick to it.

The Look ahead

The look ahead is just as important as the look back. You have to know what you can still expect on the river. This is especially the case if you are playing passively, as your actions often depend on the odds. Don't give yourself implied odds for a marginal call if you aren't sure you can get more money out of your opponent on the river.

Pot Control vs. Protection

This should be your main concern with marginal hands. You generally won't know where you stand with your hand and can run into the problems we mentioned above. You can end up neglecting protection in favor of keeping the pot small to avoid facing expensive decisions on the river - to your disadvantage.

At this point, another important factor has to be considered which is important not only for turn play: Your position.

You naturally want to play as many pots in position as possible, and base many pre-flop decisions heavily on your position. However, the decision to play in or out of position is made before the turn, and you will often find yourself on the turn after having entered a hand out of position.

You know that different situations arise depending on your position. You can control the pot and protect your hand more easily when you are in position. You always get the last word. Any decision you make out of position is influenced by the fact that your opponent will have a chance to respond to your action.

Take a look at a few options you have on the turn depending on whether you are in or out of position:

A bet on the turn after betting before and on the flop is called a 2nd barrel. Firing a 2nd barrel is a continuation of your story. The only question is if your opponent is buying it.

The options are clear: If you hold a very good hand, your play is bet/3-bet. With normal stack sizes, this usually means that you are already all-in with your 3-bet.

However, if you don't have anything and try to bluff based purely on fold equity, you have to stick to the line bet/fold and fold!

However, bet/fold turn can also be an excellent way to figure out where you stand with a marginal hand.

If you plan to play check/call, you might as well bet yourself. You get some fold equity and know where you stand if your opponent raises. You also get more value from weaker hands and draws, and are more likely to get paid for your strong hands in the future, since opponents will have trouble putting you on a hand when you bet.

Bet/fold is the best option out of position, simply because you barely have any reasonable alternatives. Check/call is rarely a good choice, as you give away free cards and don't build up the pot. Aggression is often rewarded in Hold'em. If you have a hand, bet.

You can also get helpful information out of position: A raise from your opponent is usually a sign that he has you beat.

On one hand, a raise is always categorized higher than a bet. Many players can bluff bet, but relatively few can bluff raise, as well. And those who do, very often pick the wrong spots for it.

If this raise now comes after your opponent called pre-flop and refused to be pushed out of the pot on the flop, then the raise on the turn often indicates a monster. It is definitely not a shame to throw away your top pair against most opponents. It's actually the most reasonable choice most of the time.

If, however, you decide not to fire a 2nd barrel, you are left with three options:

• Check/Fold

  You have absolutely nothing to show and don't think you can make your opponent fold. You give up the hand.

• Check/Call

  With a check/call, you get into the way ahead / way behind situation which you already know from the flop play articles. You can do this on a dry board and against opponents who can bluff bet (in this case, float) and even bluff raise on the turn, but is unlikely to call you down.

• Check/Raise

  Check/raise is a good move against very aggressive players and potential floaters. If you know that your opponent will bet the turn very often, then you should check and signal weakness. This check/raise can even be seen as a value and protection line.
  
  Another advantage: You balance your check/fold lines. This means your opponents won't know if you're giving up the hand when you check the turn. However, if you hold a very strong hand and your opponent doesn't bet on the turn, you will miss out on value.

You obviously have a number of advantages when you are in position. You can react to your opponent and keep the pot small with a call/check behind, or increase the pot with a bet/raise.

The same principles apply to a 2nd barrel in and out of position, but your options become limited when your opponent donks, regardless of his previous actions.

A bluff raise is usually very expensive, and furthermore it is difficult to determine the fold equity. You may even commit yourself and end up having to call a push with a marginal hand.

You have to ask yourself if you are ahead often enough and if you are willing to risk your entire stack on the river if necessary. You could call and play way ahead / way behind on a dry board, or raise and commit yourself (and protect against draws).

The situation is a bit more difficult after a check from your opponent. Depending on hand strength, the opponent and the board, the following question arises:

• Bet for free showdown, or
• Check behind for bluff induce?

These are usually your two options on the turn when you have a good made hand. Both moves have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on the opponent at hand.

When you believe your opponent will call with a weak hand or a draw on the turn, but will usually check unimproved on the river, you can bet on the turn and check behind on the river for a free showdown.

The following factors influence the success of this play:

• Villain has to be able to call a weaker hand, or a draw, on the turn.
• Villain should rarely check/raise on the turn.
• Villain should be a rather passive player overall, ideally a calling station.
• You often put Villain on a draw, meaning you don't want to give him free cards, anyway.
• You give yourself enough showdown value and are sure you can win with a check behind on the river.
• You don't think you would be able to call a large bet on the river, since your opponent is very passive and will rarely bluff on the river.

Check behind for bluff induce is based upon another assumption. Either you see yourself ahead and don't have your opponent on a draw, or the board is dry and you don't have to worry about being outdrawn on the river.

The following factors influence the success of this play:

• Your opponent is rather aggressive overall, tending towards TAG, LAG or even Maniac style.
• You don't think that Villain calls with a weaker hand on the turn.
• The board is relatively dry.
• You only put Villain on a possible draw in very rare cases.
• Villain is rather aggressive and could often check/raise the turn, after which you would have to give up.
• You assume that Villain bluff bets with a weaker hand on the river often enough, eventually a busted draw as well. You have no problem calling a large bet on the river.
• You still have outs which could still give you the best hand.

Now you have to make your decision based on the information you have on your opponent and the board.

In general:

• If you hold a relatively strong hand on a dangerous board, you should protect most of the time and bet.
• You don't have to play bet/fold against aggressive opponents who also play draws aggressively. Bet/call with a top pair is also acceptable against such players.
• The basic idea should always be: Bet! You should only play passively when you think that checking behind could have higher EV based on the points listed above.

We don't want to spend too much time on draw play, since you should already be familiar with odds and implied odds.

It doesn't matter whether you are in a heads up play or in a multiway pot, if you are in position or out of position, or what kind of draw you have, the same rules always apply:

• What kind of draw do you have?
• How many outs do you have?
• How many clean outs do you have? How many outs do you have for the best hand? How many outs have to be discounted or only give you the second best hand?
• What are the odds for your outs?
• Do you get these odds in the form of pot odds?
• Can you still expect implied odds on the river?

You won't make too many mistakes if you follow these rules. Naturally, it is clear that only one more card is pending on the turn, and that your equity thus decreases. You'll have to do some rough estimating if you face a heavy bet. It will be hard calling any bet upwards of 2/3 the pot size with a normal 8-9 out draw. You should also have a realistic idea of your implied odds on the river.

Your implied odds mostly depend on ...

• ... your position. It's always easier to extract value when you are in position. You can raise for value. You invite your opponent to check behind when you are out of position, or give away your made hand/completed draw when forced to donk.
• ... the number of opponents in the hand (the more opponents, the higher the implied odds).
• ... the texture of the board (how obvious is hand to your opponents).

Your play on the turn is pure mathematics, provided you leave out implied odds (you just have to be sure you calculate correctly).  The optimal play here is especially important in SNGs, since you also have to take potential equity losses through the ICM into consideration.  These can be compensated for with the implied odds that you are sure to have.

Review

You have seen how turn play can become problematic and the options are at your disposal.

You should always have a plan of action and stick to it as well as you can. Only bluff when you can sell a convincing story (float, 2nd barrel). Protect when you are ahead. When you aren't sure where you stand with your hand and are in position you will have to decide between taking a free showdown and checking behind to induce a bluff.

You also have to have the river in mind know what kind of situation you are getting yourself into. You should know what line you are going to play on the river once you make your decision on the turn. It is of utmost importance that you concentrate on your turn play and constantly work on developing yourself as a player.

You can practice some more with the help of examples found in the second article on turn play, which will explain the previously described situations in even further detail.

LINKS
Related articles: Flop play– Basic Principles Flop play – Aggressive play Flop play – Passive play Turn play– Examples Discussion Forum: Discuss the content of this article in the Forum