Hi! I have struggled when I'm playing OOP, I called the flop with a decent hand and I improve to a great hand on the turn, what's the best play?

If we check villain may see a free river card but if we bet we can throw the villain out of the hand.

Let's see some examples:

Dry high flop

CO (100bb) raises to 2.5, Hero in BB (100bb) calls.

Flop As Td 4c

BB checks, CO bets 33%, BB calls (We assume we have a decent hand, any pair, or a good draw)

Which card are we going to lead on the turn?

GTO says we are checking 98% of the time here, even if we hit a two pair on the turn, we are waiting for V to bet, and that makes sense. The only cards we consider leading are the remaining fours.


Flush on the turn

UTG (100bb) raises to 2.5, Hero in BB (100bb) calls.

Flop Td 5d 4h

BB checks, UTG bets 33%, BB calls.

We are going to lead to the turn 20% of the time, any low card completing the straight, a 5 or a 4 is good for our range and very bad for UTG. But what should we do if we turn to a flush?

Turn Kd

BB will check 100% here, even with nut flush


Recap: Almost always the best way to squeeze more value of a great hand in these examples is checking back to the aggressor. We are safe if we play 100% check on the turn OOP with 100% of our range after check calling flop. We can lead if the card really improves our range and weakens villains, but if not sure you should check.

Goal: Find the best way to play these spots exploiting the current metagame, will post any update

How do you approach this?

I like to lead with a polarized range when the card is especially good for our range.

For example if villain Cbets flop in a spot where they should be polarized, then the second card pairs on the turn. They should not have many trips, and we should have many more. I find that leading here works especially well as a bluff, as many villains tend to overfold to this line.

On flush-completing turns I mainly still check, planning to check raise a flush. Exception if villain is a calling station then I just bet. But against aggressive villains I still check. It sucks when it goes check check, but then you can bet river with a polarized range. It also benefits the weaker made hands in your range when villain checks back with something like top pair top kicker, so while your flushes might lose value, it also saves a different part of your range money when you are out kicked with top pair or something.

A main exception to checking the turn with a flush is when the A is one of the flush cards on the board. In that case the preflop raiser often has few flushes in their range (if they raised from earlier position). So in this scenario I will often lead flush-completing turns with a polarized range. I find that I get called much more with this line compared to when I lead after the second card pairs, so I lean a little more value heavy, but obviously that's villain-dependent.

I'm going to test the lead bluff when the second card pairs on the turn, I hadn't thought about that before, it looks like a good exploit in general. Also, Flop x/B/C, Turn x/x, River OOP bet has like 65% fold in low stakes. If you have a good number of hands using your line please let me know, I want to know the % of success.

Thank you!