On the flop things start to get a little more complicated in NLHE. Now you have the 3 community cards to connect your preflop cards with. I suggest you bet 3/4 pot every time you decide to make a bet on the flop, so if the pot is $8 on the flop, you make a $6 bet. What type of flops you decide to bet, check/call or fold depends a lot on you opponents as well as your actual cards of course. Here are so general rules to follow.

  • Always bet flops that contain an ace or a king if you are the preflop raiser. The reason is that a preflop raiser will often have big cards, so many players will fold their smaller pairs when there is a king or an ace on the flop. Sometimes you also bet a queen high flop even when you don’t have the queen.
  • Bet any flop where you hold 4 cards to a straight or a flush, this is called betting a draw and a semibluff. On the table above you have both a straight and a flush draw so you would definitely bet. If someone bets first, raise the draw sometimes and sometimes just call, mix it up.
  • Bet any flop where you have top pair or better, slowplaying with checking a good hand is usually not a good idea. That means betting one pair, overpair, two pair, sets, flushes, straights, everything. If you are not the preflop raiser you can sometimes check and then raise when the preflop raiser bets instead.
  • Usually check call the flop with middle or bottom pair, and then usually fold to a turn bet.
  • If you get raised on the flop, reraise 2 pair or better and call with your draws if the raise is small. Also call a raise with top pair hands but usually fold turn then unless you improve.

There is a lot more to flop play than this, however I suggest you follow these basic rules now and read more about flop play once you got some more experience. Now it is time to go on to turn play.