Flop, turn & river

In Texas hold’em the cards that are placed by the dealer on the board are called community cards and this happens in three phases. Flop, turn and river is the names of the three phases in a poker hand. This is not the case in all poker variations, but you will face this order in the most popular games as Texas hold’em and Omaha.

The first three cards are dealt together and are called the flop, the next card are the turn and the very last card is the river. These to last phases are also called streets (e.g. 4th street) and there’s betting rounds on every street. It also a betting rounds before and after the flop that’s called pre-flop and post-flop.

So in other words we can separate a hand in poker in four phases with there betting rounds. This of course will create some strategically circumstances.

There’s some kind of players that are very reluctant to fold their hands before all cards have been revealed. Calling bets with mediocre only because you want to see if your hand will improve or to be sure of that the opponent really has you beaten is very far from an optimal strategy.

There’s absolutely some cases when this is the right approach, but only when our odds is positive. (In this beginner’s course you also find information about odds.) The other reason to not be calling on every street with a mediocre hand is that we allow the opponent the decide the size of the pot.

In poker we don’t want negative odds and we don’t want to be passive. Instead we want to do operate either before the flop and directly after it – this said in general not as a strict rule.



The operating before the flop is primarily based on the strength of our hole cards. In another article the benefits of patience was pointed out and it should be said that in poker a good player is a disciplined player – this is probably true in all sorts of gambling forms). This means that a great number of the starting hands should be folded immediately. We will discuss more about starting hands criteria’s in an article later on in this course.

The action directly after the flop is critical. Here we must plan our actions for the rest of the entire betting round. A good acting is therefore not just call to wait and see what’s going to happen. Let’s say we have a draw, in this case we must consider the odds and also the value (how big is the pot going to be) of making the hand.

If we need a card to make a straight, but in the same time there’s two suited card on the board and also the board is paired. In this case the risk is big that even if we make the straight we will be beaten by a flush or a full house. And when maybe be forced to lay down the straight in a later betting round  facing a very big bet … this is a example of bad planning.

Therefore the best action is in most cases to either fold directly or to make a bet or raise. By betting or raising we get information from the opponent’s response and not the least: we get the chance of winning the pot right away. This is the solid way to play poker.

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