Looking for More Knowledge About Basic Limit Strategy and Flop - Study the Materials

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The flop is hold’em’s defining moment. It’s the critical moment in each hand you play. It’s important to realize that hold’em is a very front-loaded game. When you see the flop in hold’em, you’re looking at five-sevenths of your hand. That’s 71 percent of your hand, and the cost is only a single round of betting.

As the betting limits increase on the turn and river, the flop is even more of a bargain. In a $3-$6 hold’em game, you can often see the flop for $3. Future betting, if there are no raises, could cost you $3 on the flop (the cost to see the turn card), $6 on the turn (the price to look at the river card), and $6 on the river, for a total of $15 dollars more.

The flop is poker’s biggest bargain next to a hand that’s checked and allows you to see if you completed your draw at absolutely no cost. You can see 71 percent of your hand for 17 percent of its potential cost. But don’t get carried away by the relationship between the cost of the flop and the price of the rest of the hand. The flop is only a bargain as long as your two starting cards warrant seeing it.

The implications of this should be obvious. If the flop does not fit your hand, you ought to be done with it — unless there are some very solid reasons to stick around. Playing long-shot holdings after the flop is a sure way to go broke, unless, of course, you’re getting huge pot odds to call. Why? Because after the flop, the relationship between the betting and cards-to-come is reversed. Now you’re looking at spending 83 percent of the potential cost of a hand for the remaining 29 percent of the cards!

Fit or fold. Fit can take one of three forms: The flop fits because it improves your hand; it offers a draw that figures to pay off handsomely if you hit it; or you hold a big pair before the flop. If you don’t improve to a big hand or a draw with a potential payoff exceeding the odds against making your hand, get out — and do it now. Many beginners as well as experienced low-limit players, often stick around for one more card. This is a major leak in their game. In fact, if you play winning poker under all other circumstances, this flaw is still critical enough to turn a winner into a lifelong loser! When the flop doesn’t fit your hand — and that’s going to happen about two-thirds of the time — you must fold it unless the odds offered by the pot exceed the odds against making your hand.

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