Don't give freecards

[jdiana86]

For all the begginers out there, one piece of advice I can give you is too not slowplay or try to trap with your hands. Only in rare situations is it OK to do this. First of all, if there are two of the same suit or two cards seprated by 5 or less gaps, you are possibly making someone a straight/flush on the turn or river. I can count two times in the past few days where I gave a free card and someone hit a set on the turn. Luckily, one of these times I was able to get away from the hand, but the other busted me in a tourney that I could have easily gone on the place in the money. Remember, when you have the goods, push with them. Aggression is the key, at least in no limit.

[Defendant]

Something like that just happened in my tournament: blinds 10/20, im on the BB with 56 spades. UTG+2 raises to 40, to callers, I call, flop 667 rainbow. Original raiser raises out 90, I flat call, other 2 go away. Turn is a blank, I raise, he calls, river is a blank, I put him all in ( I had him WELL covered)...he flips over AA.

Had he raised more than minimum raise, the 56 would have hit the muck.

Defendant

[Chutups]

I've learned this quite quickly, I count how many times I tried to extract extra money and having another player outdraw me with a free card. I rather just take the chips in the pot.

[BlackCoffee]

Yes I agree. You should bet your hands and make people pay to draw.
Draw are quite hard to make and in the long run the 'fish' will be paying you off.

I've heard people on-line say that you should always check-raise the best-hand which i thought was peculiar.
I think this is a very very bad tactic and I see people pay for it all the time, then they whine

BlackCoffee.

[junYUN]

well obviously you can't always check-raise...someone could just check right behind you.

[sjay2k]

I think you should only ever give freecards if you're two cards ahead of your opponents, or you're a certainty to win the hand. for example if you hit high trips on the flop or turn, even if you're opponent has two-pair, they will need runner-runner to beat you. Then when you push all-in at the river, they will call your "bluff".

Another great time to give free cards is when you flop a boat or the nut-flush and other players are quite-obviously drawing. Nothing sweeter than seeing four cards to a straight or flush when you flopped a full-house. Well maybe something sweeter, but I'll keep this post clean

[SirFWALGMan]

I totally agree. Even in limit it is bad. If you flop a boat or straight with no suits matched you can slow play a little. Usually I will try and raise on the turn and take the pot there in limit.

[ChipFish]

Better to win a medium to small pot then to lose a big one isn't it?
Kind of goes with my A-A folding arguement doesn't it?