Online Flop Poker
Preflop is the most common and important street in poker. The decisions you make on this street will greatly impact the rest of the hand. The hands are organized by position or the order in which you act. 5 Tips To Crush Flop C-Betting 04 Mar At the small stakes and mid-stakes levels, there are a lot of players who are unfamiliar with the concept of C-betting or make a lot of mistakes on the flop that cost them.
The flop is the first phase of showing cards in poker, where 3 cards are shown. With your two cards, you may or may not have a five-card hand like a straight or a flush. Usually at this time you do not and you are chasing or maybe have a pair. There are still two cards that will be shown but usually players forget this in the midst of the game and get tempted into betting or making a bad move. Remember to stay focused while playing and have a strategy on the flop.
When should I see the flop
If you are the big blind you should see the flop. You’ve already got some chips in the pot because of the blinds, and you have the option to bet. When you are the big blind you should definitely be seeing the flop. When you have great cards, like two high-valued face cards or pocket pair cards, you should be betting and seeing the flop. Your likelihood of wining the hand is much higher because you have better cards that were dealt to you. If you are dealt great cards you should be betting and seeing flops.
When betting pre-flop, you should generally ready yourself for a continuation bet on the flop so if you’ve bet pre-flop, you should see the flop as well. When you are on the button and you have good cards you might want to bet pre-flop too. In this way, you can easily take the small and big blinds chips, if they fold. You could also consider small betting to get additional chips in the pot from the small and big blinds, as they are likely to call to see the flop.
This chart details the Hole Cards that we believe you should open with in an 8-max No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament without antes – such as Match Poker Online’s™ Scrap game. They are dependent on your position, explained below.
The positions around a table in an 8-player game, clockwise from the Dealer Button, are:
- Button/Dealer (BTN)
- Small Blind (SB)
- Big Blind (BB)
- Under The Gun (UTG)
- Under The Gun +1 (UTG+1)
- Lojack (LJ)
- Hijack (HJ)
- Cutoff (CO)
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How to interpret this chart:
This chart shows all the possible Hole Cards you could be dealt – ‘s’ for ‘suited’ and ‘o’ for ‘offsuit’.
When you are UTG (i.e. directly to the left of the Big Blind), this chart suggests you should only open (i.e. bet first) with the cards in the Red boxes.
The same goes for UTG+1 (i.e. left of UTG).
When you are in the Lojack (LJ) or Hijack (HJ) positions, more hand combinations open up. The chart suggests you can now open with all of the cards in the Orange boxes in addition to the ones in the Red boxes.
In the Cutoff position, even more hand combinations open up. The chart now suggests you can open with all of the cards in the Yellow boxes in addition to the ones in the Orange and Red boxes.
Next you reach the Button and Small Blind, where more options are available to you, including all of those that were available in the earlier positions. In these positions, the chart suggests you can open with any cards in any of the coloured boxes.
Any boxes that are white are those you would usually never open.
Lastly, once you are familiar with this chart and have applied it in practise, you’ll begin to learn how to deviate from these guidelines when the situation calls for it. [Click here to learn why position is so important in poker!]
Learning to quickly recognise what position you are in and how this translates to what hands you should open with will quickly improve your play. We see nothing wrong with printing this guide out and following it religiously in Scrap games (as well as in the first stage of Elimination games) as you learn to find your feet in poker. Diligence is key at this stage in your learning.
Watch your Rating Points soar as you learn to follow this guide!
Poker Flop Odds
*Editors Note: We frequently get feedback from players that this chart has led them astray. For example: “I had K3o on the Button and folded, per this chart, and the Flop came out 3-3-K. I could’ve won 3000 chips because three other people played that hand, who I would’ve beaten.”
Online Flop Poker
To this, our response is that we apologise for leading you astray in that hand, but, in the long run, this chart will ensure you end up in front. We explain this in our article on Expected Value – an integral concept for all aspirational poker players.