Protecting the Draw
Drawing poker hands can be pretty sketchy. It’s tough to know that you are close to a monster casino hand, but without the cards you need, you’ve got garbage. There’s also no way to know if another player will raise you and make it too expensive for you to see the next few cards. You don’t want to pay too much to see a river that won’t help you, but it can be a heartbreaker when you fold, just to see the cards go your way. One of the easier ways to try to ensure a free online poker card is a raise after the flop. For example, if you’ve got a Jack-8 of spades and the flop comes out Queen of spades, 5 of hearts and 2 of spades, you know that you want to see a few more cards before you put more chips in the pot. However, the odds are that one or more of your opponents will put in a raise before the river comes, so you want to put them in a defensive position with a raise. Even if someone raises before it’s your turn, go ahead and re-raise. Unless they’ve already pulled a killer hand, they’ll be too nervous about your raises to do anything but check after the turn, so if the turn doesn’t help, you’ll get a free peek at the river.
