When playing post flop, generally, if you did not hit a great flop which is 71% of your entire hand, you do not want to call bets all the way down to the river. The first thing you must do after the flop is to think back to what your opponents did pre-flop and how they have played other hands pre and post flop. You must think before you act and know that most players will be holding high cards or drawing hands if they continue past the flop. You must use all the information you have taken in to put your opponent on his hand.

After you think you know what your opponent has, you must figure out the number of outs you have. You must then understand the probabilities of hitting one of your outs, that would give you the winning hand. You can simply do this by deciding which cards would make your hand a winner and counting how many can possibly be left in the deck. For example, if you have 1 king there are 3 more kings left. If you have 2 hearts and 2 hearts are on the board then there are 9 hears left in the deck. Once you figured out the number of out, multiply this number by 4. This number is a rough percentage of your chances of catching one of your outs on the turn and river combined. Please read hand odds for more details. You should also know your pot odds. This will let you know if it is right to call a certain size bet. Knowing your outs and the amount of money in the pot is needed for this.

If you have hit top pair with a good kicker with no drawing possibilities on the flop you should bet your hand. But at the same time if there is a flush draw or a straight draw, you want to bet enough that their pot odds will not allow them to call your bet. If you are the person who has flopped the draw, you must use your pot odds to know if players are allowing you to call the bet. If so, call. If not, fold. If you are lucky enough to flop a monster hand you can then check if you know someone will bet and then simply call the bet. If you don’t believe no one will fold you can bet and then raise.

There are many different things that can happen after the flop and each street. The following pages will give you some more in depth post flop strategy.

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