Taking A Free Card

The better the player, the more valuable good position will be of benefit. Why is this? Because he will use that position to outplay the opponent, winning more money when he has a good hand and stealing more money when he has a bad hand. As you improve your no-limit play, you will be placing more importance on good position.

Let’s look at a common no-limit hold’em poker situation. You are in late position and call a preflop raise from a middle position raiser and find yourself in a heads-up pot on the flop. The raiser bets somewhat more than half the pot and you call. On the turn, a blank comes and he checks. You have a drawing hand. Having position has presented you the pleasant choice of taking a free card or trying to exploit your opponent’s apparent weakness by betting (a semi-bluff). Lots of money is riding on whether you select the right choice. Taking a free card is the safe choice, but putting in a purchase offer for the pot will be more rewarding – if it works. Of course, the converse is also true, as you put money at risk when you were not obliged to do so. What should you do?

Of course, poker is poker, and it is foolish in this situation to always do the same thing. But I think it is fair to say that the tendency of newer players is to favor the safer choice of taking the free card, whereas when your reading of the opponent improves, trying to win the pot is a serious option to consider. So let’s talk about the different elements involved with making the right choice in this situation.

Who is your opponent? Is the opponent mainly a straightforward player who bets when he is fairly confident and checks when he is not? It is hard to restrain your greed when facing such a player. Or is your opponent a tricky player who often checks a good hand hoping you will take the bait? Even worse (for your running a semi-bluff), is he one of those people who is simply a weak player who often checks and calls because he hates to fold and is curious as to what you have? In addition to being hard to bluff, he will also likely pay off if you make your draw, so the free card option is usually the right choice against a calling station.

Who are you? I am more willing to put money at risk to have a go at winning the pot here than most other players, even most good ones. This is because of my poker style of playing few starting hands. Furthermore, I make no attempt to put on the image of a loose goose. It is easy for the opponent to mentally label me a tight player and not want to get involved in a big pot with me without a quality hand. Also, I smooth call on the flop with quite a few hands that many players would prefer to raise. So part of my decision whether to bet will be based on how much smooth calling I have done that session, and what kind of hands I have actually shown to the table after my call on the flop. Of course, in the same vein, my decision is affected by whether I have publicly been given a speeding ticket or two in that session.

How deep is the money? Basically, we are talking about whether there will be money left to wager after the opponent acts. I much prefer to have a lot of money left whenever I bluff or semi-bluff. There is extra leverage with deep money when betting, because the opponent knows that it will cost him plenty if he plays the hand out and is wrong. I rarely put in a purchase order with a draw if there is only one pot-size wager or slightly more left to bet. First, I lack the added leverage of threatening to wager more money on the last betting round. Second, I would probably have moved in on the flop, where if I run into a strong hand, I would have two cards rather than just one to make my draw. Third, I will no longer be able to get my hand paid off after I complete the draw.

What will happen if I choose to bet and the opponent does not fold? Some players, especially the weaker ones, are more likely to just call than to venture reraising. If a call is more likely than a reraise, I would like to have a big draw, which will give me a better chance to win the pot after getting called. However, if the opponent was trapping with a big hand when he checked, he is almost surely going to come over the top at me. I am either going to have to throw my hand away or make a call that gives me only a slight amount of equity versus folding. Either way, getting reraised is bad news. It is a huge adverse swing if you have to fold to the reraise and would have made your hand if you had not run a bluff, and an even bigger error if the opponent was going to pay you off after you hit.

How big is your draw? This is a large factor in your decision. Facing a player who is likely to reraise if I bet and he has a good hand, I would actually prefer to have a speculative hand like a gutshot and a couple of overcards rather than a hand with a lot of outs. It will be more likely that I have not knocked myself out of a pot that I was destined to win if I had taken a free card. I might not have cost myself any money at all by raising if pairing an overcard would not have been a winner. Naturally, if the opponent just calls, I do not have as much hand to fall back on. A big draw is nice to have if the opponent is not a tricky player, and is probably going to only call and not raise if he chooses to continue.

Was there a flush draw on the flop that did not help on the turn? A flush draw is the most common draw in hold’em poker. Flops with a flush draw are a detriment in certain ways to your effort to hijack the pot. Your opponent is more likely to put you on a draw and call (or raise). If you have a straight draw and a flush draw is on the board, you may be depriving yourself of a chance to represent the flush and run a successful bluff. On the other hand, if your opponent failed to bet again into a flush draw that did not hit, this is a sign of weakness.

You can see there are many factors in your decision of whether to take a free card or semi-bluff. Learning how to handle this situation is worth plenty of money. I hope this information helps you navigate. ♠

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered (autographed to you) from Bob by e-mail: [email protected]. Free U.S. shipping to Card Player readers. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons at a reasonable rate. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.