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Answer: Fold

This isn't quite the stealing position for king of heart with two players yet to act, even though you look weak with one ten already out. Seat 2 is likely to have a strong hand, very possibly a pair of kings. Other hands he can have in this spot are three broadway cards, a flush draw or a small/medium pocket pair, all of which you can beat. Yet, with a ten and a six already out, you will likely not improve your hand all the way. If he does have kings or an overpair, you are a huge underdog.

Even if your opponent does not have kings, he definitely has a playable hand against your dead ten's with any live pocket pair or an AQK and you wouldn't quite know at what point he beat you unless he catches a king on board. The best play is to fold. The ten's will come around again.

Answer: Fold. You don't have enough outs.

While it was okay to semi-bluff bet on fifth street, hoping that your opponent will fold a weak hand or his dead jacks, he has now improved on board and is betting into what looks like aces. He probably has jacks up or a pocket pair, although it is also possible that he has four flush. But guess what...it really doesn't matter what he has. You're beaten on board and your opponent has two of the four's that you need for a straight. There simply aren't enough outs for you to beat his likely hand (two-pair). You need an ace, deuce or four on the river to be able to bet/call the river, and if your opponent is lucky to have or make a full house or a flush, that will not even be good enough and will just get you in trouble. Get out!!

This scenario brings us to an important point that is crucial to all poker players. Do not defend your ego. Yes, you raised on third street... you represented aces and you were hoping to win. But your opponent obviously didn't believe you or had something good himslef and kept calling. He knows that you didn't have aces after you fold on sixth street, but be proud that you did the right thing.

Answer: Fold.

The QJ almost certainly has you beat and his cards are pretty much as live as yours are. You really don't have any reason to play. Note that since you're the bring-in, another heart won't scare your opponent and it won't really help you either.

Answer: Fold.

Whether you should have called on fourth street is debatable. But clearly, while you caught the perfect card, your opponent caught an even scarier card. Remember that the most likely hand he's got when he calls the bet on fourth street, is a pair of sixes. When he now catches a six, he may very well have trips making you a big underdog. Even if he's got just two pair, he's got you beat. Don't take any risks here.

Note: Your opponent did have trips and neither one of you would have improved any further. This example emphasizes the problem you encounter when you improve but your opponent seems to improve even more. It is sometimes psychologically hard to give up such a hand, but it must be done if you are playing to win.

Answer: Fold.

You started with a pair of sevens and now you improved to an open-ended straight and the cards you need for a straight or trips are pretty live. However, your opponent has caught a very scary card. He may have just made broadway, a flush, aces or aces up. Even if the ace didn't actually help him just yet, it gives him more ways to improve on the river. He now certainly has a straight draw and very possibly a flush draw too. You must ask yourself two questions: 1) Can I reasonably assume that I currently have the best hand? 2) Will I be able to raise my opponent on the river if I catch the card that I want?

The answer to the first question is a resounding no. It is quite possible that your opponent did not start with split kings. But if he started with any playable hand other than a small pocket pair, he's got you beat. If he started with any broadway card, straight draw or flush draw he's got you beat. You can't just think wishfullly "well, but maybe he's got nothing or perhaps pocket deuces".

The answer to the second question is a resounding no as well. Since he may already have a broadway or a flush and he might hit one on the river as well, raising with your small straight or trips is extremely risky and it could get you in trouble if you get reraised. You would therefore only call on the river if you hit the straight or trips and possibly with two pair as well.

The previous two standards are the benchmarks for calling a sixth street bet by an opponent who is showing a scary board and is betting aggressively. If you don't meet these standards, you ought to fold without exception. Sometimes you get bluffed, but it's quite unlikely and you're risking too much on too weak a hand.

Note: It turns out that your opponent only had pocket fives and did not improve at all! and neither have you improved. But that's just the point. Since you probably wouldn't call the river with just seven's, and even if you do improve you can ONLY call, it's too much of a long shot and the correct move is to fold. On the long run, you will save money by folding in these kind of spots against anyone but a maniac who plays with nothing.

In reality, it should have never come to this point. You probably shouldn't have even called the fourth street bet. If you did call fourth street, you should have been out by fifth street.

Note that your improvement on fifth street to a gutshot straight draw was countered by your opponent's possible improvement to a bigger -possibly open-ended- straight draw. It is therefore not really useful. Improvement to two pair would have been a great deal more appreciated in this kind of situation.

Answer: Raise.

You have A pretty strong draw here and you're not about to fold any soon with only one club out and your opponet's relatively weak board. The fact that he caught the ace shouldn't scare you at all since one is already out and players don't usually play just an ace in the hole. Since his most likely hand is a pair of sixes, you must take control of the game if possible, and give your opponent a chance to fold a winning hand on a later round if you catch a card that scares him. By raising you are also "gaining information". While you will certainly not fold if reraised, a reraise does tell you something about your opponent's strength. An average player won't reraise you with just sixes even if he thinks you're drawing to a flush. A raise could therefore indicate a pair of aces or a big pocket pair (or aces up).

This play is consistent with our theory that the strong board should be in command of the game. Bet strongly when your board is strong and be less aggressive when it's not. Since your opponent only bought the ace on fourth street, it isn't that much of a scare card; raise and see where he's at.

Note: Interestingly enough, you caught two scary cards on fifth and sixth street and you finally caught the flush on the river. The eight of heart looks like it may have given you a straight or a straight draw (which is true), and the nine of heart is an even scarier card posing the threat of three-of-a kind. If your opponent had a big pocket pair or even aces, he might fold now and you WANT HIM TO.

Clearly, regardless of what your opponent has, your hand on sixth street is still weak and the chances of you improving on the river aren't as certain as it may seem. Your raise on fourth street presents a window of opportunity for your opponent to fold in confusion. He'll be afraid of a straight, river flush, trips and even a full house.

Answer: Bet.

There are two possible flushes, but our advice is that you should bet since you have improved to two pair and a flush draw. You know that is you hit the full house or the flush you have the winner. You are not afraid of a bigger spade flush since the king of spade is out giving you an AQJ-high against a possible AQx-high (the jack of spade is out too). Seat six is not likely to be holding AKc or AQc in the hole either. You are not afarid of a full house since no one except seat 6 is showing a pair on board. Seat 6 is not a threat either with all the jacks out as well as two sevens and a three.

So basically you know that if you hit on the river you can go for a check raise or do whatever you can to get the most money in the pot with what looks like the nuts. We will call this kind of situation "drawing to the nuts" even though in reality you aren't. Seat five doesn't look like a threat and he will probably fold for your bet. The main question here is whether seat 6 or 7 have a flush already and they're going for a check-raise. In this kind of situation, the eight of diamond gives you sufficient out to beat their possible made hand to justify betting.

You might ask yourself "well, but it doesn't hurt to check... just in case!". But the answer to this is "No it does hurt". NEVER give a free card when you're ahead. Since it is very likely that you are currently ahead and you don't even need the flush or the boat, go ahead and bet to give your opponents a chance to fold.

If you are check-raised you must fold on the river if you don't improve. There is clearly no room for a bluff here. You are representing aces up and you are showing three threatening diamonds as well. Seat six cannot possibly have jacks full and he wouldn' be check raising you with jacks, jacks up or jacks up and four clubs. These hands are all too weak against the tremendous strength you're showing with a possible aces up and the AJ of diamonds.

Answer: Fold.

A key factor taken into consideration is your opponent's fourth street card. The four of clubs almost certainly did not help your opponent in any way. It certainly didn't help him develop a straight or flush draw. He's therefore probably betting a pair, either a pocket pair or a pair of kings. Either way, you're beat and you're not likely to improve. Even if you do, your opponent might improve to a bigger full house himself, costing you even more money. The pot is still small. Fold!

Note that in some cases it is correct to stay. Notably, if your opponent checked on fourth street, that could mean that he started with a flush draw or big cards and he doesn't have a pair. However in the situation in our example, our avbice is to fold.

Another consideration is how live his and your cards are. In our example, even though you haven't seen and ten's or three's out, this is only your seconday consideration. Your primary consideration is whether your opponent has two-pair (or better) and how live his cards are. Since his cards seem to be as live as yours and you think he already has at least two pair, you should fold.

Answer: Raise.

Never assume that your opponent has a full house unless there are clues indicating so. Normally, when your opponent pairs his door card, it indicates trips at best (if there's no flush possibility). You are therefore safe to raise him while you have the best of it.

This situation is one that calls for alertness. Notice that there is one king and two eight's out. This makes it considerably less likely that your opponent has a full house already or that he will make it on the river. It gives you more confidence to raise him and even bet the river after he checks. If his cards were more live, you'd consider just calling, or perhpas raising on sixth street and then checking behind your opponent on the river if he check-raises.

The fact that player 1 is still in doesn't really change your strategy. Some good players will just call in this spot, hoping to trap player 1 into calling with a weak hand, possibly a "dead draw" (drawing to a hand that cannot possibly win). However, this is wrong, unless you know that he's a bad player. Player 1 will almost certainly fold with his likely one-pair hand facing two opponents with scary-looking boards, especially if he hasn't been aggressive in his play thus far indicating a weak hand. By just calling, you are making it cheap for him to call if he has two pair and catch a miracle card on the river to beat you. He is likely to fold for a raise, even if he's got two pair, and you want him to. If he doesn't fold for the raise, that's even better since he's making a mathematical error and is drawing too slim to correctly call a double-bet for a pot of this size.

Just calling will almost certainly make you lose a bet, as far as player three is concerned. Since he will frequently call you on the river with two pair or trips but he is very unlikely to bet into you without a full house facing a board like yours (possible straight and possible flush), you are losing a big bet by not raising on sixth street. The correct play is therefore to raise right away. Another reason for raising is that this allows you to set up a bluff-raise at other times when you have a similar-looking board but you don't quite have the goods. The raise induces fear and inhibits your opponent from calling on the river with weak hands.

Note: Seat three did indeed have trips and as you predicted did not fill up on the river.

Answer: fold!

It is extremely tempting to call in this spot, especially considering that the diamonds are live but calling here is emphatically wrong and there are many reasons for this:

1) you are giving too much away about your hand while your opponent's hand remains unknown to you. Your opponent has a very good idea about what you're playing; he's knows that you have to have at least two-pair or trips to have his aces beat on fourth street and justify a call. These possibilities are both unlikely. When he sees a suited door card, he knows that you're playing a flush draw and he is therefore likely NOT to pay you off if you hit another diamond on board. The only time he will possibly pay you off is if you hit it on the river and he can't see it, but that means that you'll be calling many big bets to get to that point and you will be going in to the river as an extreme underdog.

2) You have too few outs if you don't hit the flush. Note that the very least you can win with -if you don't make the flush- is two-pair. Contrast this with playing a flush against an opponent who makes a small pair on fourth street and you have overcards, in which case you might even win with one big pair. In that case, you might also win by catching two big pair or big trips even if your opponent already has two pair or trips or makes it later. Against aces, however, you can't win with two pair if he's got two pair and you can't win with trips if he's got trips. You have no other outs here and you should therefore not play.

3) your opponent is boss here. He will be betting all the way even with just aces and you will have a very tough time trying to bluff him out. A small-paired door card is much weaker and will probably stop betting on fifth street if that's all he's got. He is also very prone to be bluffed out even before the river if your board is showing a coupl of overcards and you are betting aggressively.

Remember, no matter how live your flush draw is on fourth street it's still extremely easy to catch three off-suited cards. You have to be LUCKY to catch that fifth suited card. (you normally will make a flush 47 persent of the time; see our stats page). It's just not worth playing for it when the pot is small and the situation is not right. This may have been the first time in hours that you've had a four-flush first-four, but you have to let it go here even if you don't think either one of your opponents has trips or even two-pair.

Note: Fortunately, if you had disobeyed our advice and you did play the flush, it wouldn't have cost you the sixth street bet. After your opponent makes aces up on board, it is foolish to still call hoping to make a flush when you can easilly be beat already. Note that your opponent initially entered the pot with a flush draw and had not only aces up going into the river but he also had a four flush AK-high. This means that if he improves at all on the river, you canot possibly win and you don't know that. As far as you're concerned, he may have a full house already.