The river is the last street in no limit holdem, now there are 5 community cards out there and there are no more cards to come. If there have been bets on all the former streets, the pot is usually almost as big as your remaining stack or maybe even bigger. In this situation it is common to bet all the rest of your chips if you want to make a bet, this is called going ALL IN. It is a very powerful move, and is used both as a bluff and as a bet with a good hand. People playing low stakes don’t bluff too much from my experience, so if you are going to call their last all in river bet I advice you to have a good hand, top pair good kicker or better. Here are some tips to help you with playing the river.

  • Don’t go all in when you bet if the pot is smaller than the size of your remaining chips, a 3/4 pot bet works better then.
  • Chances your opponent is bluffing are higher if there is a missed flush or straight draw out there, say there were 2 clubs on the flop and no more clubs landed on the turn or the river. In this case you should call with weaker hands more often since chances are fairly high your opponent is bluffing.
  • Go all in with top pair top kicker or better on the river as a value bet, people at low stakes love to call with bad hands and give you the money. If your chip stack is larger than the size of the pot, bet slightly less than the pot instead of going all in.
  • Check the river with weak made hands like top pair bad kicker and second pair and hope to see a showdown for free.
  • If you were betting your draws on the flop and the turn and now miss on the river you may consider bluffing. There is probably no chance you can win at showdown, so you will need to bet to win the pot. If you think your opponent has a weak hand and will fold you should bet as a bluff. More often than not however, you should just give up and check playing low stakes poker, players here don’t like to fold and usually call you when you try to bluff.

Now it is time to learn about odds in poker, go here for step 12 in the guide.