learn · turn
The turn.
A bet on the flop commits you to nothing. On the turn the decision starts again, with two questions: do I have a hand that wants to be paid off, and does this card fit my hands better than his. If the answer to both is no, you check.
read the card first
A card that does nothing
The ranges barely shift, so your plan from the flop still holds. If you had a reason to bet, you still have it; if you did not, you still do not.
A high card
An ace or a king fits the hands you raised with before the flop better than it fits your opponent. That is a credible reason to bet again, even when you did not hit it.
A card that completes something
The third heart, or the card that fills the straight, hands your opponent new strong hands and takes the value out of your bluffs. Bet larger with what you really have, and bluff far more selectively.
A second bet in a row is not something you are entitled to; the question is why you are making it. Which kind of card falls is also tied to the kind of board that was there on the flop: on a dry board few cards change anything, on a wet one almost all of them do. And if your opponent bets into you here, a check-raise is the answer that costs him the most.
keeping the pot small
You hold on a board of . That is top pair, and it feels strong enough to bet. But consider who would call: essentially only better kings, while everything you already beat folds. You would be betting to lose to the better hands and win nothing from the worse ones.
Checking is stronger here. You keep the pot small, you avoid having to guess for a lot of money after a raise, and you reach the end cheaply with a hand that often wins. The reason top pair is weak here is your second card: that kicker decides the hand the moment somebody else also holds a king.
So on the turn you bet with what genuinely wants to be paid off, and with draws that can still grow. The second of those is a semi-bluff, and it is nearly always better than calling passively with the same hand. Everything in between leans towards checking.
one card left
On the flop you had two cards to finish your hand, on the turn only one. That nearly halves your chances, and it is the reason a draw is suddenly worth a good deal less on the turn.
| What you have | Chance on the river |
|---|---|
| Nine cards help, for instance four to a flush | 19.57 percent |
| Eight cards help, straight open at both ends | 17.39 percent |
| Four cards help, straight with a gap | 8.70 percent |
With nearly 20 percent you can call a quarter pot bet but not a three quarter pot one: that needs 30 percent. What you can still win from him afterwards if you get there may be counted in, but only rely on it against someone who actually pays you off. The comparison itself is pot odds.
How often your hand wins against the hands your opponent can hold is called equity. Estimating that number is a learnable skill: the free equity calculator works out what it actually was, hand against hand or hand against range.
next step
The practice: one real decision a day.
The turn is where the gap between thinking and carrying on shows up most clearly. The hand of the day archive holds one hand for every past day where something is genuinely at stake, with the solution alongside it and with what each option costs in big blinds.
questions about the turn
What is the turn in poker?
The fourth shared card, and the third betting round. One fewer card is left to come than on the flop, and the pot is by now large enough that a mistake here genuinely costs money.
Should you bet the turn after betting the flop?
Only with a reason. Two reasons count: you have a hand that wants to be paid off by worse hands, or the turn card fits your hands better than your opponent. Continuing automatically because you started on the flop is one of the most expensive habits there is.
What is pot control?
Deliberately keeping the pot small with a hand that may well be best but does not want a big pot. Top pair with a weak side card is the textbook case: you check, you get to the end cheaply, and you avoid having to guess for a lot of money.
What is the chance your flush still arrives on the river?
If you have four cards of one suit after the turn, nine cards finish it and 46 are still unknown to you. That makes it 19.57 percent, so roughly one in five. On the flop the same draw was worth nearly 35 percent, because two cards were coming instead of one.
What is a semi-bluff?
Betting with a hand that is worth nothing yet but can still grow. You win in two ways: your opponent sometimes folds immediately, and if he calls you can still complete your hand. That is almost always better than calling passively with the same hand.
Why do bets get larger on the turn?
Because the pot is larger. A half pot bet on the turn is quickly double the same bet on the flop in absolute terms. That is also why the turn is the street on which a bad habit shows up in your results fastest.
On to the last card, or back to the overview of learning poker.