Recommendations for playing on the turn when the flush is closed and there is no flush

Often in the game there are unpleasant situations when you have a good hand on the flop, but a third flush card appears on the turn. And sometimes it’s not easy to make sense of this situation. But there are some guidelines to help you play it right.

Playing a 3-flush on the turn as an overflop dealer

You already have medium pairs in your hand with no position and no extra outs too weak for a second-ball call. For example, a player on BB with a Jack and Ace of Spades hits the flop with a Queen of clubs, an Ace, and a three of hearts, then the flop is followed by a five of hearts on the turn. After the check, we get another barrel. 

Of course, in the case of an opponent’s bluff, the poker player will be successful. But one should expect that the opponent will also go all in.  So in the end it will be necessary to fold.

Naked OESDs should definitely be folded

Again on the BB there’s a Jack and a Queen of clubs on the hand, and on the flop you get an Ace of Spades, a King and 4 hearts. After the check, there is a seven of hearts on the table.

On the flop a two-way straight draw is very good. There really is an opportunity to get to the river and get a strong hand. But the value of OESD is greatly diminished if a bunch of flush nats show up.

After a second-barrel call in the example above, the player hopes the table won’t have an ACE, a 9, or a heart. Even so, that wouldn’t be a disastrous outcome, because the hand is nice.

That is, if the betting is adequate on the turn, the poker player won’t have any implied-odds, which means this hand will go into a loss.

Pocket pairs above the second card of the board without an additional flush or straight draw will bring nothing

For example, a player on the BB has a pair of 8 spades and a heart against a stack from the SB. After a call on the flop there is an Ace of Diamonds and 6,7 clubs, and then another bid of 2 clubs on the turn.

To go on, the hand is not the best, given that one hope.  In this case the board is 4-flush, so the best option would only be 8 of diamonds. But in most cases that’s not enough.

But also in this case a Queen and 7 of hearts, or King and 7 of hearts would be better candidates for a call than a pair of 8s.  

With the second pair, you should always check

For example, on an open-raise on the preflop there is an Ace and a Queen of clubs, and there is a call from the same opponent. And the board on the turn is Jack, Ace, 5 spades and 6 hearts.

The poker player’s position is irrelevant, the hand is weak to bet on a hard edge but strong to bluff, in which case the best solution is to take a passive showdown.

But if there’s a safe van out on the river, you might think about betting a bluff. But first of all, you need to understand your opponents’ range, and bet in a situation where you think your opponent will be able to call hands in at least half of the situations.