888poker: Five Tips To Upgrade Your Post-Flop Game
Table Of Contents
Want to plug the leaks in your post-flop game? 888poker ambassador Ian Simpson has put together a quick, structured guide covering the key decisions that shape your win-rate.
From big-blind defence to turn barreling, each segment in this strategy guide shows how to think through the spots that come up every session.
Defending the Big Blind
When you defend the big blind to a raise, you will be playing out of position and will check to the preflop raiser almost always. You have had a discount preflop, so your range is wider, while theirs is tighter and stronger. On most flops, they have the advantage in both strength and position. The default is to check and respond to their continuation bet.
Once you face that c-bet, clear out the trash first. On a J-T-5 flop, hands like pocket threes, ace-deuce offsuit or seven-six offsuit are simple folds. What remains is your playable range such as top pairs, second pairs, sets, straights and various draws.
These hands fall into two strategic buckets: check-raises and check-calls.
When Should You Check-Raise?
Most players do not check-raise often enough. It is an important way to generate fold equity and build pots with your best hands.
If you defend with six-five and flop a straight on 4-3-2, you want to get money in. The same applies to sets and other monsters. But you cannot only check-raise value hands. You need bluffs for balance. Hands like king-five offsuit, which have an open-ended draw and an overcard, work well.
Check-raising these draws can force ace-high to fold and set up multi-barrel opportunities later. You can sometimes push out one-pair hands on favourable runouts too.
When Should You Check-Call?
There are spots where you almost never check-raise. This happens when ICM pressure is high or the flop heavily favours the preflop raiser.
Say you defend with seven-five and the flop comes A-K-5. The raiser has all the strong top-pair combinations, the top sets and the premium two-pair hands. They have the advantage. In this spot you fold the trash and mainly check-call with your continuing hands.
When Should You Lead Out?
You should not build a leading range on flops that are great for the preflop raiser, especially when the raise comes from early position. It is difficult to balance and rarely profitable.
You can lead on boards that favour the big blind’s range. On 5-5-2, for example, you have far more fives than an early position raiser. Because you have that nut advantage, leading prevents them from checking back strong hands. It lets you extract value while also generating fold equity with weaker hands that may improve later.
How Should We Play the Turn?
When the flop checks through and you get to the turn, assess whether the new card helps your big blind range more than the preflop raiser’s. If the texture shifts in your favour, you can build a turn probing or donking range.
Top pair with good kickers, gutshots and open-enders all work well here. You are trying to push them off high-card hands that currently beat you while building value with your made hands and applying pressure with hands that still have room to improve.
