The Free Card

When is it right to take a free card instead of betting? When is it right to raise in order to try to get a free card on a later street? This latter tactic, "the free-card raise," is a standard motif among many players. The idea is that if you have a drawing hand, you raise on the flop, hoping that your opponent or opponents will check to you on the turn. If a blank comes, you simply check and get to see the river for free. When this scenario unfolds, you save a bet, since the limit on the turn was double that on the flop. If you hit, there is extra money already committed to the pot.

There are some problems, however, with raising on a come hand in order to get a free card later. First, the original bettor may reraise. When this happens, you may have lost a bet instead of saving one when a blank comes on the turn and your opponent continues betting. Second, when you get checked to on the turn and you simply check back, you are telling your opponent that you were drawing, which allows him to play more accurately from that point. Specifically, he knows that he has the best hand, or can likely pick up the pot by representing the best hand with a bet on the river. Of course, if you make your hand on the river, he can simply check, and fold when you bet, assuming that his read of this situation is accurate. Third, in a multihanded pot, a raise may have the effect of eliminating players, which is seldom desirable when you have a drawing hand. In fact, with a standard draw (an open-end straight draw or a flush draw with no other outs), the last thing you usually want to have happen is to raise and drive out everyone else, resulting in a heads-up confrontation between you and the best hand. Some players reason that it is good to raise on a flush draw, which is only about a 2-to-1 dog, as long as you have more than two callers. They believe they have an overlay on the pot odds, so raising is right. But again, there is a potential problem when you raise. You allow the original bettor the opportunity to reraise. This has the double-barreled impact of making the original callers face two bets cold, which may drive some of them out, and it costs you more money to pursue your draw.

I am not saying that you should avoid employing this tactic. However, I believe it is overused by many players. Perhaps the following set of problems will illustrate when taking a free card and raising to get a free card are appropriate.

Hand No. 1 ($20-$40 game): You are on the button with the 10 9. An early-position player, a middle-position player, and the cutoff limp in. You also limp in, and the small blind folds. There is $110 in the pot and five players.

The flop is A K 2, giving you a flush draw. The big blind checks. The early-position player bets and your other two opponents call. What should you do?

Answer: Raise. This is a good situation for a free-card raise. The bettor figures to have an ace, given his lead into four opponents. However, with a big ace like A-K or A-Q, he probably would have raised preflop from early position, and it is unlikely that he would limp in from early position with A-2. Therefore, your raise is unlikely to get reraised by the initial bettor. You have two opponents already tied in for one bet, so your raise will not drive them out. Furthermore, you know that you will have to make your flush to win, so if a blank comes on the turn and you are checked to, you can check and take a free card. Notice that you are not giving up anything by checking on the turn when a blank comes, because with this many opponents, you were unlikely to win the pot by betting, anyway.

Hand No. 2 ($10-$20 game): You are in the cutoff seat with the 9 8. An early-position player and a middle-position player limp in. You call, as do the button and the small blind. There is $60 in the pot and six players.

The flop is K 5 2u, giving you a flush draw. It is checked to the middle-position player, who bets. What should you do?

Answer: Call. Don't raise, trying for a free card. When you raise in this situation, you are confronting your other four opponents with a double bet. With this board, the most likely scenario is that they will all fold except for the bettor, who probably has a king. When you are drawing like this, you want bottom pairs and middle pairs to call, not fold. It is unlikely in a heads-up situation that you will be successful in getting the bettor to fold a top pair of kings on any street, so you must make your flush to win.

Hand No. 3 ($10-$20 game): You are in middle position with the A K and raise after an early-position player limps in. The big blind and the early-position limper call. There is $65 in the pot and three players.

The flop is J 8 5, so you have two overcards with a backdoor-flush draw. Both players check. You bet and only the limper calls. There is $85 in the pot and two players.

The turn is the 10, giving you a gutshot-straight draw. Your opponent checks. What should you do?

Answer: Check. The 10 probably helped your opponent more than it did you if he was drawing, and if not, he was calling your flop bet with a better hand than yours. This means he will be calling your turn bet as well. Finally, you have only four clean outs to the winning hand, since your overcard outs will not win all the time even when you hit one of them on the river.

Hand No. 4 ($20-$40 game): You are on the button with the A J and open with a raise. Both blinds call. There is $120 in the pot and three players.

The flop is Q 10 3, giving you a gutshot-straight draw with an overcard. Both blinds check. You bet and only the small blind calls. There is $160 in the pot and two players. The turn is the 8, giving you four more outs to a straight. Your opponent checks. What should you do?

Answer: Bet. When heads up with position over your opponent, and with the turn card being unlikely to have helped him, you should bet again. You may win the pot outright if your opponent was hanging around on middle pair or bottom pair. Furthermore, with eight outs to a straight plus three overcard outs, you will catch something good on the river about one-fourth of the time, anyway. Finally, if he is on a flush draw, you are giving a free card instead of taking one, and a check would invite him to rob you on the river. It is seldom right to take a free card on the turn when you have one opponent and something to show down.

Hand No. 5 ($20-$40 game): You are in middle position with the A 6 and call behind two early-position limpers and another middle-position player. The small blind limps in. There is $120 in the pot and six players.

The flop is 5 4 3, giving you an open-end straight draw plus an overcard. It is checked to you. What should you do?

Answer: Check. Take a free card. You have five opponents and a highly coordinated board. Your straight draw is not nearly as good as it looks, because it is a "one-card straight draw," meaning that you are using only one of your two cards. With only one card working, your hand can be easily counterfeited, possibly resulting in splitting the pot or losing it altogether. Your ace overcard is of dubious value, since an ace turning up would put four parts to a wheel on the table, and your kicker is weak. With this many opponents, someone could easily have a deuce and make a straight when you pair the ace. You may well get raised, costing you two bets to take off a card. Betting now does not mean that your opponents will necessarily check to you on the turn, anyway, given that board.

Hand No. 6 ($20-$40 game): You open with a raise from middle position with the A 9. Only the small blind calls. There is $100 in the pot and two players.

The flop is J 8 2, giving you the nut-flush draw and an overcard. Your opponent checks. You bet, and he raises. What should you do?

Answer: Reraise. This may well be a "free-card reraise." You have a lot of hand here against a lone opponent over whom you have position. Your opponent may be check-raising on a jack, and may simply call and check to you on the turn, fearing that you have a bigger jack, an overpair, or something more. Even if he continues to play back at you, you are almost even money to make the nut flush or top pair by the river, and you will be going to the river with this hand. If he calls, a blank comes on the turn, and he checks to you, taking a free card is attractive because he is unlikely to fold for a bet given his strength-showing check-raise on the flop.