Online Flop Poker
Online Flop Poker (Redirecting to BetOnline Poker because Empire no longer exists. We recommend Ignition Poker for US and Australian players) Holdem Sites Party Poker: The Empire Poker Room. All renewed poker. Daniel Dvoress opened the betting from the cutoff with a raise to 2.2M. Hermogenes Gelonezi called the button before Dominykas Mikolaitis came over top from the big blind to 10M.
You now have five cards to make an assess of your hand with; your two hole cards and the three community cards. But remember, the flop may also have helped an opponent, so you also need to consider the number of other players involved, as well as the texture of the flop, before determining how you want to play from here.
Firstly, let’s look at determining the strength of your hand.
Categories of Post-Flop Hands
After the flop, hands tend to fall into three categories: ‘made’ hands, ‘drawing’ hands and ‘unmade’ hands.
‘Made’ Hands
A ‘made’ hand is one that has improved significantly on the flop and has only a slight possibility of further improvement.
If you had a pair of pocket Aces preflop and another Ace falls on the flop, you now have top set (Three of a Kind) and your hand can only realistically be improved by seeing the final remaining Ace (highly unlikely) or the board pairing to give you a Full House.
The important part to note is that this is already a very strong – or ‘made’ – hand.
Made hands can themselves be separated into three groups:
Monster hands: Better than one pair on the flop
Examples:
A♠J♠ on a flop of A♥J♦2♣
3♠3♥ on a flop of A♠K♦3♦
Very strong hands: Very good one pair hands such as top pair with top kicker or an over-pair to the board
Examples:
Q♠Q♦ on a flop of 10♠4♣4♦
A♠K♠ on a flop of A♦10♦4♠
Marginal hands: These are hands like middle pair
Examples:
A♠10♦ on a flop of K♠10♥2♠
J♣J♦ on a flop of Q♣8♦3♥
Drawing Hands
‘Drawing’ Hands are hands that have connected with the flop but still need to improve.
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For example, if you have J♥10♥, you will be delighted to see a flop of Q♠9♥2♥ because you almost have either a straight or a flush.
But you are not there yet. You still need to hit certain cards to improve your hand.
There are different types of draws that vary in strength:
Very strong draws: These are combined straight and flush draws or a combination of draws and made hands.
Examples:
Q♠J♠ on a flop of 10♠9♠2♦
A♥2♥ on a flop of A♣5♥J♥
K♠Q♠ on a flop of A♠10♠4♣
Strong draws: These are open-ended straight and flush draws to the nuts (or close to it)
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Examples:
10♠9♦ on a flop of A♠8♦7♣
K♣Q♣ on a flop of A♣6♣5♦
Weak draws: These are gutshot draws, or flush/straight draws that don’t make the nuts.
Examples:
7♠6♦ on a flop of 8♥9♥Q♣
8♣7♣ on a flop of K♣9♠5♣
Unmade Hands
One of the unfortunate realities about poker is that you see many more unmade hands than any ‘made’ or ‘drawing’ hands.
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This doesn’t mean your unmade hand is necessarily bad. Sometimes High hands such as Ace-high and King-high can win the pot by showdown but they will not be able to stand up to much pressure if facing a bet.
If your hand is worse however, then your hand is pretty much worthless. The only way to turn the hand into a winner is to make a high-risk bluff.
At this stage, you probably don’t want to get involved in making foolish bluffs, so you should throw away your unmade hands and wait for another chance to hit something strong. All poker players – including the very best – spend a lot of time folding their cards.
In his latest strategy video, Gareth James takes a look at c-betting, giving you five top tips on how to approach this technical aspect of your post-flop play. Check out the video at the bottom of the page, and read on for all the advice!
I've coached a lot of players, looked over a lot of databases and seen some very costly mistakes when it comes to flop c-betting! In this video, I go through some of my top tips for flop continuation betting (aka c-betting) that, when fixed, can help you make more deep runs and more final tables.
Post Flop Online Poker
Even solid players sometimes forget these things, so make sure you pay attention!
1. You can group flops into sub-categories
There are 1,755 strategically different flops. You can't learn the strategies for every single one. But you can group them together into sub-categories like Axx, K/Q + 2, paired and monotone. This makes it easier to learn the c-bet strategies for the different types of flop.
2. You should c-bet more in position than out of position
Take a look at your own stats right now... if your flop c-bet numbers for IP and OOP are close together, you're probably doing something wrong. Either you're not c-betting enough in position. Or you're c-betting too much out of position.
The following 3 tips are for IP c-betting versus the Big Blind.
Related: Why You Shouldn't Continuation Bet So Much
3. Paired boards can often be c-bet for a small size
The solver will almost always advocate for a small bet-size and very often. The Big Blind will often have a high proportion of very strong hands, but they will also have a huge percentage of hands that would have to fold to a big c-bet. When we bet small the Big Blind has to call more often, and very often these hands are not that strong.
(There's a bonus 6th tip hidden in the video on which paired boards we should look to check more)
4. Low boards often have a big c-bet or check strategy
Both low connected and low unconnected boards have a big c-bet or check strategy. Think about how these boards connect with the BB's range. They will often have a lot of made hands plus a higher proportion of very strong hands like 2 pair, sets and straights. When we have too many hands that can't comfortably c-bet and call a check-raise, we have to c-bet a more polarised range and start checking back some hands.
5. C-bet the best boards for your range often
Look out for the boards that are the best for your range and bet them very frequently. These boards include 2 Broadway, ABB, ABx since we have a higher proportion of the very strong hands like sets, two pair and straights.
Gareth James is the head coach and founder of MTT Poker School and the lead instructor for MTT Game Changer, an interactive group coaching program and course aimed at part-time poker players looking to compete with the pros. For more information, click here.