The “Free” Card

Sick of those ignorant ‘fish’ always raising with flush and straight draws only to hit them on the river and take more of your money? Perhaps they’re outplaying you…

Position is one of the most important aspects in limit holdem, probably more important than the cards you hold. Being last to act, seeing what each of your opponents does before you have to decide, is a huge advantage. One of the most common moves using position is the ‘free card.’

This play works best if you are last to act, on the button or ‘bought the button’ in the pre-flop action. You call a raise with 6♥7♥ on the button and 3 other players take the flop of:

Q♥9♥5&spades

Now this is a slightly exaggerated situation, here you have a gut-shot straight draw and a flush draw, but you could make this move with a flush draw, open-ended straight draw, and obviously with both.

Let’s assume a standard $2/$4 game. The BB checks, the preflop raiser bets, and the man in middle position calls. Here is where you should raise. Make it $4 to go on the flop. The BB folds, and the pre-flop raiser calls, as does the middle position caller. Now the turn card falls:

Q♥9♥5&spades … 2♣

The blank of all blanks, but because of your raise on the flop and taking control of the hand, the hope is that it will come check, check to you. Here you can either decide to bet out again if you sense weakness, or check and take the Free Card! Da DA! Now it wasn’t really ‘free’, it cost you an extra bet on the flop, but since the limits increase on the turn you saved a whopping $2. Even better, suppose the turn comes:

Q♥9♥5&spades … 2♥

Now they check to you again, and you bet. It will be harder to put you on the flush since by your flop raise it could look like you had J&spades10♦ or even something like Q♦K&spades and they will pay you off for two more bets of $4 a piece.

Good luck on the felt!

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