How do you adjust your bets on the turn? Continuation bet or pot control?

[lapgame]

I have been studying the post-flop game more and I notice that many hands are defined on turn , where the pot is already bigger and the decisions are more expensive.

My question: when you are in position and hit something on the flop, what usually weighs more heavily on the decision to bet or control on the turn? Board texture, type of villain, position?

And when the turn is a dangerous card, how do they handle it? Do they keep pressing or do they prefer to control?

I want to better understand how you adjust your bets at this stage of the hand. Tips are welcome!

 

[amonlima]

You've already talked about important points to observe, so you have to evaluate the strength of your hand, and bet for protection when necessary, check when you can't get two streets of value and bet the river, with medium combos you will check more, bet the 2nd pairs and with a good kicker, because you still extract better combos. But, everything is based on the pre-flop, know your opponent's range, to know about the combos he can have, this will be very important for you to know which combos you should check or bet.

 

[fundiver199]

If you have a value hand, then one of the main questions to ask, is how many bets its good for? Can you bet flop, turn and river on a clean runout and still be good more than 50% of the time when called? If not then the strategy is typically to check either flop or turn for pot control. Occationally you can bet flop and turn but check river instead on draw heavy boards. Another question to ask, is what if I get raised? If that would really suck, and is likely to happen, then maybe dont bet.

Out of position yet another question is, if its better to shift to check-call mode to allow the opponent to hang themselfes. This could be a hand, that is not good enough to go bet, bet, bet, and is also unlikely to get outdrawn, so its not a disaster to "give a free card". Like having KK on a paired board like JJ6 rainbow. On such a board the opponent is either ahead already or drawing almost dead, and the only bad card for you would be an ace or maybe a 6.

 

[fundiver199]

I know, you asked about the turn, but the idea of hand planning and pot control really begin on the flop. And we dont want to be so face up, that we always C-bet the flop, or that we always have air, when we check back. So here are two hands from my last session, where I flopped a pair but checked back the flop for pot control.

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In this one I flopped second pair on a paired board with a weak kicker. And while this is the best hand most of the time, there are not many worse made hands, that will call, if I bet multible streets for value. I also dont want to get raised, because that will put me in a tough spot, where I might either end up folding the best hand or losing a big pot, when he did in fact flop trips and have me drawing almost dead. And it worked out great. I got an almost perfect runout, and I got the opponent to put chips in the pot with a hand, that would probably just have folded, if I had bet the flop, and was drawing to two outs.

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In this one I flopped second pair with an OESD on a very connected board, and once again, if I bet multible streets, there are not to many worse made hands, that can call. And once again I also dont really want to get raised and have to play a massive pot, because the value of my pair shrinks a lot, and I could be basically dead, if he flopped a straight. Yet again it worked out great, since I got the opponent to put chips in the pot with a hand, that would probably just have folded, if I had bet the flop, and was drawing to three outs.

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In this one I flopped top pair on another very connected board, and this time I bet the flop. The turn card was however very bad putting a 1-liner to a straight, so from this point my goal shifted from getting value to trying to get to showdown and hopefully win a small pot. Or maybe bink a J on the river, which would give me a higher straight. If the opponent had bombed the river, I might have folded, but he bet really small, and we ended up chopping the pot. Which is as ok outcome, and the important is the decision making going in to checking back the turn.

 

[Dejana]

I have been studying the post-flop game more and I notice that many hands are defined on turn , where the pot is already bigger and the decisions are more expensive.

My question: when you are in position and hit something on the flop, what usually weighs more heavily on the decision to bet or control on the turn? Board texture, type of villain, position?

And when the turn is a dangerous card, how do they handle it? Do they keep pressing or do they prefer to control?

I want to better understand how you adjust your bets at this stage of the hand. Tips are welcome!

First, you never know whether your opponent will accept your bet/call or immediately fold, regardless of the bet size...

Sometimes I'm a sneaky bitch, sometimes I'm too passive, sometimes I'm too aggressive - no one, but no one can answer the question of how your opponent will play his hand in any situation!

You follow his game at the table and you will judge for yourself what to do at the right moment...

 

[steve01991]

i always take the cautious approach after the flop. then judge the % of winning it.