Firing the Second Barrel

Firing the second barrel means bluffing again on the turn after your opponent called your flop bluff. It's probably one of the most important skills to master if you want to crush no-limit hold'em games.

Second-Barrel Basics

Many flop calls are made for speculative reasons. Players have a draw that they hope to improve on the turn. Or, they have a weak pair, and they aren't sure whether you have a bigger pair or just two unpaired cards. Or, they don't have much of a hand, but they're sticking around hoping that you will give up. Firing the second barrel is designed to attack these speculative calls.
In these cases, the flop callers are not committed to their hands. They just plan to stick around for one more round, and only if they catch a break do they plan to proceed beyond that.

When your opponents are calling with a draw, more often than not they won't catch their card, and you can bet them off the pot. When your opponents are calling to see if you'll give up on the pot, you can disappoint them by firing on the turn.
Overall, when your opponents call the flop for speculative reasons, you are in a position of great strength no matter what cards you hold. Simply betting the turn is a winning strategy.

Identifying Speculative Calls

Not every flop call will be speculative. Sometimes your opponent will be trapping with a huge hand. Or, more often, your opponent will have a fairly good hand that he just doesn't plan to fold. He may not like that you keep showing strength, but he isn't giving up, either.

To fire second barrels effectively, you need to separate the likely speculative calls from the stronger calls. Two keys to doing that are identifying your opponent's hand range and examining the board texture.

Let's say you raise from a relatively early position with K-Q, and a tight player immediately to your left calls. Everyone else folds. The flop comes 8-4-2 rainbow. How should you proceed?

When tight players call preflop from an early position, they tend to have fairly strong hands, and their ranges are weighted toward pocket pairs. For instance, they might make the call with any pocket pair, A-K, or A-Q.

Look at the board texture - three rag cards. How would your opponent proceed with each hand in his range on this board texture? Pocket aces through nines are overpairs. Pocket eights, fours, and deuces have flopped a set. Even pocket sevens, sixes, and fives look like they might have dodged a bullet by catching this raggedy flop. The same logic applies to A-K and A-Q, which could be ahead. Your opponent's possible hands look mostly fairly strong.

I would tend to check and fold the flop. Don't bluff into strength. But let's say I decided to try a continuation-bet and my opponent (predictably) called. How about firing a turn barrel?

If the turn is a 3, firing a turn barrel is terrible. The pocket pairs look just as strong as they did on the flop, and the weaker hands like pocket sixes, pocket fives, A-K, and A-Q have just picked up a straight draw. You're likely to get called or raised.
If the turn is a jack, firing a turn barrel isn't so bad. Pocket tens and nines are no longer overpairs. Pocket sevens, sixes, and fives each have to worry about two overcards on board. A-K and A-Q have missed completely. It's not a great second-barreling opportunity, but 8-4-2-J is a much better board texture in this situation than is 8-4-2-3.

A Better Opportunity

Now that you understand the basics of how your opponent's hand range and the board texture interact to determine whether or not you have a smart second-barrel opportunity, I'll show you a more lucrative example.

It's a $2-$5 game, and you and all of your opponents have about $500 stacks. A player limps in from four off the button. Everyone folds to you on the button, and you make it $25 to go with the 7 5. If this play appears loose to you, I assure you that it's perfectly sound - provided you can smartly fire the second barrel if the opportunity arises.

The big blind calls, as does the limper. The pot is $77, and you have $475 remaining. The flop comes J 8 3. Everyone checks to you. This is a somewhat coordinated flop, so if you bet, you can expect to be called with reasonable frequency.

However, a large proportion of these flop calls will be speculative. Your opponents will often be drawing to the spade flush or to a straight with a hand like Q-10, Q-9, 10-9, 10-7, or 9-7. Or, they'll have middle or bottom pair with a hand like 8-6 or A-3. You can expect to push your opponents off many of these hands if the turn card comes good for you and you bet.

You bet $55 into the $77 flop pot. The big blind folds, and the limper calls. The turn is the K. Your opponent checks.

This card is great to fire a second barrel on. It completes none of the speculative hands I listed above. It has the additional benefit that it should scare your opponent if he flopped top pair with a hand like J-10. The pot at this point is $187. I would bet around $120 or so. This bet size should be enough to convince most opponents to give up on speculative hands. It might even get someone off a jack.

The K is a nearly perfect turn card for firing a second barrel because it completes no draws and also scares flopped top pairs.

Let's say you caught the 10 instead. The situation is now much different. All of the speculative straight-draw hands that I listed above have now improved. Q-9 and 9-7 have made a straight. Q-10, 10-9, and 10-7 have made a pair. You can expect at least a call on the turn from each of these hands.

In addition, possible hands like J-10 and 10-8 that possibly could have been cajoled to fold either on the turn or on a scary river card (you can fire a third barrel, too) have now made two pair and are going all the way.

I would just check back the 10♥ and resign myself to losing the pot, since this card hits the speculative hand range fairly well.
The same logic goes for a turn 9, and also a queen or a 7. These are bad cards because they hit your opponent's range.

Good barreling cards in addition to the king include small bricks like offsuit deuces, fours, fives, and sixes.

Some turn cards make for great bluffing opportunities, and some are too likely to help your opponent to allow you to keep bluffing. If you compare your opponent's likely hand range to the board texture, you can determine whether your opponent is probably in a calling mood or a folding mood. If you learn to fire second barrels when your opponents are likely weak, you will terrorize the tables.

Ed is a featured coach at StoxPoker.com. Also check out his online poker advice column, NotedPokerAuthority.com. He has authored four books on poker, most recently, Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume 1.