The Dreaded Free Card
One of the things you want to avoid is giving your opponents a free chance to beat you.
That’s equivalent to giving odds. Let’s say you have J 
J 
and the flop is 9 
7 3 
.
You probably have the best hand and there are some important reasons to bet here. What if your opponent has two hearts? Or T 9 ? Or A 7 or 8 6 ?
A player with any of these holdings has to draw to beat you. Make them pay to try.
If you bet, they are probably getting the correct odds to call, but if you don’t bet, you’re giving them infinite odds.
You can’t give away gifts like that very often and expect to be a winning poker player. Note,however, that we’re talking about a single opponent.
When you have four or five opponents who call, you may not have such a good hand. Later we look at an example of this hand, this flop, and four opponents.
When you might not profit from a bet, you should consider folding if someone else bets, and a couple of other online poker players are calling or raising.
The perspective you need to take when evaluating a hand on the flop is different when you have multiple opponents than when you have a single opponent.
Betting to keep from giving up a free card can be even more important when you’re not sure you have the best hand.
For example. Let’s say you’re on the big blind with a hand like 9 4 , and no one raised before the flop. The flop is Q 4 2 . What should you do?
You should probably bet. You might not have the best hand. Someone may have a Queen, but you’re not sure, and the danger of that is not nearly as large as the danger of giving someone with a hand like 10 8 or 7 6 a free chance to beat you.
If you do have the best hand and check, then a lot of cards could come on the turn that will give someone a better pair than your measly pair of 4s.
Also by betting you might get someone with a better hand, like 8 8 , to fold.In the same flop, but with a hand like Q 7 , it’s not nearly as important to bet.
In fact, with that hand you probably shouldn’t bet. The reason is that with this hand you still might not have the best hand but, if you do, then it isn’t likely that the nest card can hurt you.
By checking you are giving your opponents a chance of a free card that will make them a second best hand,not a best hand.
You also may encourage someone with a hand like 8 8 to bet, and you aren’t risking a raise in case your hand isn’t best.
Think about these two examples.In the second one we are more likely to have the best hand, but it’s the first case, when we aren’t sure at all that we have the best hand, but it’s important to bet.
Check-raising
Because the nature of fixed-limit Holdem makes calling one bet often correct for very weak hands, it’s difficult to protect your hand.
A major weapon you have to protect your hand is check-raising; however, you must be conscious of where you think the bettor will be.
Typically, if you had a made (but vulnerable) hand, you would check in early position.
You then raise, and the players in between face two bets plus a risk of a reraise by the late position player, making it difficult for them to call.
If you have an invulnerable hand that you want to make everyone pay you through the nose for, then you would check in early position if you thought there would be an early position bet, and then you would raise after everyone trailed in calling behind.
The downside of check-raising is that you risk giving a free card if no one bets.
The consideration of who the likely bettor will be is a important concept when considering a check-raise, especially so in loose games.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
Short-handed Games / Tournaments / No-limit and Pot-Limit Poker
