LearnModule T2 · Defending the turn
T2-L1
Facing a second barrel
How to decide which hands keep calling when the raiser bets the turn again, using bet size, draws and how capped their range is.
In this lesson
- Fold more as the turn bet gets bigger.
- Prefer calls with extra draws and chances to make two pair.
- Explain how a capped range turns low pairs into calls.
- Choose calls by how the hand plays on the river, not only by the pair it holds.
The price of a second barrel
You called a flop bet; the turn pot is 9.1 bb, and the raiser bets three quarters of it, 6.8 bb. Calling puts in 6.8 to win a pot of 9.1 + 6.8 + 6.8 = 22.7 bb: you need pot odds of 6.8 / 22.7, about 30% equity, if no more money goes in.
Minimum defence is 9.1 / 15.9, about 57%: the share of your range that must continue so a pure bluff cannot profit. It is a guide, not a rule. The raiser's turn range is not all bluffs, and the river is still to come, where position decides how much of your equity you keep.
- Equity needed
- 30%
- Pot odds
- 2.34 to 1
- EV of calling
- +4.55 bbProfitable
Which hands keep calling
In Rail's turn solves, against a bet of three quarters of the pot, the classes defend in a clear order: top pairs call nearly always, middle pairs often, weak pairs fold more often than they call, gutshots mostly fold, and hands with no pair fold. The most interesting line is the draws.
That is equity realisation on the turn: the same draw is a call in position and often a fold out of position.
Capped ranges make small pairs calls
Who bets the turn matters as much as the size. A raiser who checked the flop and bets the turn holds fewer strong hands than one who bet twice; against that capped range, low pairs gain in value as bluff-catchers. Read the line, then the size, then your hand.
Rules of thumb
- Against three quarters of the pot you need about 30% equity, and about 57% of your range must continue.
- Top pairs call; middle pairs mix; weak pairs and no pair mostly fold.
- Draws call more in position than out of position.
- Read who bet and how before you count your hand: capped lines make small pairs calls.
When they break
- Against a player who barrels only with strong hands, fold more of the middle.
- Against one who barrels every turn, call more of the middle and some of the weak pairs.
Example hands
Examples come from two places only: your own analysed hands in this lesson's spots, and a hand Rail deals and grades itself. Never a hand from outside Rail.
Sign in, with analysed hands, to see examples from your own play here.
Rail scripts this hand from the lesson's own practice, always the same one, and grades it with the analysis. Decide first, then read Rail's verdict.
Practice
The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.
Exercise 1
Pass: 2 of 2 rightTwo turns out of position after you called a flop bet and the turn is bet: put each hand class into fold, call or raise, graded class by class.
Exercise 2
Pass: 3 of 5 rightFive turns in position facing a bet as the preflop caller: fold, call or raise, graded by Rail's turn solve.
Exercise 3
OptionalYour own turn decisions facing a bet, the costliest first, and turns flagged for calls without the odds.
Sign in to practise on your own hands.