The turn card
April 14, 2009
The turn card is one of the cards in poker that really makes things complicated. For example, you have a two and a five that are off suit. The flop is a four. The turn card comes and it shows a three. You are only one card away from a straight. What should you do? Should you go all in or should you get out if somebody raises?
The turn card is called the turn card because it turns events around. At one point in the poker game, you may think that your cards are a bunch of crap. When the turn card comes out, your crappy cards may end up looking like a potential five card combination that can take out a pocket ace any time. Yes, this is the power of the turn card. Things change. Events change. Your poker situation will be moved.
How do you address the turn card? There are several ways of analyzing the turn card. First of all, you can use the turn card as the buffer prior to the river. If you have a straight draw or a flush draw after the flop then you have two chances to make it. You have the turn card and you have the river card. If you see it this way, you can be aggressive early on. You can start raising when you sense that you will be able to make the five card combination. If you think that you can hit the five cards then play aggressive early on.
Second, you can use the turn card as the bluffer card. For example, you have a pocket king and then two kings come out on the flop. You definitely do not want to make things obvious, right? You want to reel in the funds as much as possible, right? Wait for the turn card to come up and make your move. If the turn card is a jack then you can bluff that you have a jack. No one will be thinking that you have the pocket kings. The turn card is your bluffer card. You an use the turn card to bluff your opponents on what you have or what you don’t have. Let us say you are doing the reverse. If you have a two and a four off suit and then an ace comes out on the flop. On the turn card, another ace comes up. You can pretend that you have an ace and go all in. Everyone will be scared because everyone thinks that you have the ace. You have triplet ace and no one can seem to beat your hand. If this is the case, you can bluff your way to victory by going all in and scaring everyone off.
The turn card is a very crucial card in poker, anything can happen on the turn card. It will change events, it will change the rhythm, and it will eventually change the winner of the game. You have to use the turn card very well because you can make or break your poker game with this card.