Raising To Get A Free Card in No Limit Holdem

Raising to get a free card is an important strategic concept in No Limit Holdem. You may use this strategy when you are last to act after the flop and you have a strong draw that you want to play to the river. It can also be worthwhile to do with a draw when you are out of position in the hand. It depends on your opponent though. You must be confident that you will get the free card on the turn, some aggressive players won’t give you the free card.

Let’s say that the first player to act bets and everyone after him calls. You have a draw to the nut flush so you want to keep playing it all the way to the river. You may try and raise to make your opponents think that you have a strong hand. If you succeed, they will be to scared to bet and instead check on the turn card, giving you the opportunity to see the river card for free if your draw missed the turn. So you basically invest one small bet on the flop to save one big bet on the turn, thus getting a 50% rebate. So it’s actually not really a free card, but by raising on the flop it’s cheaper then calling a bet on the flop and a bigger bet on the turn. It also allows you to take control of the hand.

Raising in this situation when acting last with a draw also has other benefits except the possibility to get a free card. First of all, it will become less obvious that you have the flush if you should hit it on the turn and bet out. Also, if there are enough opponents in the pot and you can raise without making any of them fold, you will make an immediate profit from your raise. How is that possible? Lets say that you are up against six opponents and you have a flush draw. You raise and everyone calls, so you invest one extra bet and they invest a total of six extra bets. Your odds to hit the flush on the turn is 4:1 and the correlation between your extra bet and theirs is 6:1, so your invested bet will be profitable in the long run.

It may also give equity in later hands since your opponents may think you are on a draw when you raise with a made hand, which can cause them to call you with their weaker holdings.

Of course, raising with a draw when you are last to act is not something you should always do. Trying to buy a free card against a maniac who will always re-raise you because you must be on a draw and bet out on the turn is not a good idea. Again you should evaluate the chances to succeed with your strategy based on the situation at your table.

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