The Free Card
A big advantage of being in late position (especially in last position) is that you can use that position in order to get what is known as a FREE CARD!
For example, let’s say you are playing
in seat 8 of 10 players. (Seat number is relative to the position of the dealer) You raised pre-flop to 3x BB and all folded except 1 player in seat 4. The flop comes…
Your opponent in seat 4 makes a bet. What do you do?
You have the POTENTIAL here for a very strong hand in that any QUEEN will give you a straight and any SPADE will give you a flush. In this instance you should RAISE. This tells your opponent that its likely you have a strong hand and that you were not afraid of his bet. Your opponent will undoubtedly call but will be very inclined to CHECK the turn card thereby allowing you to see all 5 communal cards without any further risk to you as you only need now bet if any of the cards that you’re looking for turn up. If the turn card appears as:
you can CHECK, after your opponent has already checked, and hope to catch one of your wanted cards on the river to give your hand some strength.
Need To Know Block:
- Free cards are only available when you have POSITION on any opponents still in the hand (i.e you act LATER in the betting than they themselves do)
Next week’s article is called "Playing The Blinds"
