Turn Play Strategy – How to Play the Turn

How to play the turn is often the toughest decision you will have to make post flop. On the turn you need to determine whether your hand is good enough to continue with or fold. Really, the only way to improve your turn play is to play more hands. Playing short handed poker in 6-max games is a great way to gain experience especially post flop play, and in particular turn play.

If you bet the turn and get raised you really have to consider that you don’t have the best hand. Turn raises are usually a very strong play, and the same thing can be said about turn check raises. Many players now refer to the turn check raise as the new flop check raise. Some players like to get their opponents to invest more money in the pot before check raising. If you only have a mediocre hand and get raised on the turn you need to get away from the hand, a pair is never usually good here.

When deciding how to play the turn, you need to identify what type of player you are up against and how they perceive your play. Try to figure out which player type they are and how they typically play post-flop.

One of the big leaks players tend to have at low limit hold’em is they will continuation bet pretty much all the time and give up on the turn. If they are a TAG, they know other players perceive them as raising only premium hands so they think they can take it down on the flop most of the time even when they miss, and will always continuation bet. However, the truth is that the flop will not always help them, and if they are betting the flop with a high frequency and checking on the turn a good majority of the time, this is a leak in their play and something you will want to exploit, even when you don’t have a piece of the board.

If you have HEM/PT3 the post flop stats of interest include the players flop cbet% and turn cbet%. If a player has a high flop cbet% but very low turn cbet% this is the type of player you want to exploit at the table on the turn, especially if you have position on them. They play very straight forward poker and cbet way too much only to give up on the turn, so when the check the turn you know a bet will take it down, even if you have nothing. Now I’m not suggesting that you always call the flop to try and take it down on the turn against these type of players, but strategies like floating the flop with overcards, weak draws, and sometimes with air become a lot more profitable because you know you have other ways to win the hand.

What if you don’t have position in the hand and you were the pre-flop aggressor? If you think you had the best hand on the flop and the turn likely didn’t improve your opponents hand then you should bet, especially if its a draw heavy board and there is the potential to be outdrawn. Never bet the turn if you have no or few outs to improve your hand, you always want some showdown value and a chance to win the hand.

If you bet the flop you don’t improve on the turn card, something to consider is betting scare cards. For example, let’s say you raise preflop with KhQs in early position and you get a call from a TAG in middle position. The flop comes 3h 4h 8s and you bet 2/3 pot with your overcards and he calls. The turn is the Ac. You don’t hit one of your overcards but this would be a good turn card to double barrel because most of your opponents range would be medium pocket pairs if they had been playing fairly tight pre flop. The A also makes up a big part of your range since you raised in early position. Even if they call the turn you could probably fire a third barrel and get them to fold they could only call if they have an ace, which is a small part of their range.

Remember, when playing the turn this is where players decide if they like their hand enough to continue all the way. So when you bet, decide how you will react to a call or raise. If you get called on the turn and you don’t think you have the best hand on the river and its not a scary board, just give up the hand instead of making some stupid bluff on the river, you can fight another battle.

Playing medium strength hands on the turn can be trickier. If a tight player fires a double barrel on the turn, give them credit for a hand you are more then likely beat. On the other hand, if they are an aggressive player who double barrels a lot, then you probably still have the best hand, so you should be more willing to call. Even though it was suggested earlier in the article that you should bet the turn if your opponent checks and basically gives up, playing medium strength hands against loose aggressive players can require a different strategy. Due to their aggressive style they are more likely to check raise the turn so players don’t think they are always giving up when they check, so if you have a medium strength hand, a better strategy can be to check back. This strategy has 2 advantages, by looking for pot control and checking back the turn against these type of players you avoid the possible check-raise when you only have a mediocre hand which you have to fold. In addition, you also show weakness by checking back, so can induce bluffs from the aggressive player on later streets, so don’t always be in a bet if they check mode on the turn. Always think about the type of player you are playing against.

If you are a novice player learning how to play the turn can sound a little daunting, but with practice you will get better at it. The strategy you have pre-flop will affect your decisions on the turn. By playing with tight starting hand requirements, you will find that you will have less awkward spots on the turn, so if you are new to poker, make life easier for yourself and stop raising junk hands.

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