April 14th, 2010 by J7os

A free card is when you let your opponent or when you take advantage of seeing the next card without having to place a bet. Let us say you and an opponent is battling it out on a pot, you give your opponent a free card when you check.

There are basically two reasons why you use a free card. One is when you want to save some money if you are caught on a draw. Two, when you need to get some more money from the other players on the table.

A free card is somehow a mix of the semi-bluff and a check raise.

You use the free card so you can save money by preventing another player to bet in to you on the turn. This saves you chips rather than making a bet for the flop and another one upon the turn to see what the river will reveal.

The free card play is ideal if you are:

• Heads up against someone on the table. It might be tricky if you are against more opponents.
• The first to act
• Holding strong cards on the draw

Let’s say you got an suited A-6(Diamond) and the flop gives you Jack of Clubs and Q-5(diamond). During this play, you have one card to go for a flush and heads up against another player. You will also be the first one to act. This kind of situation is ideal to use a free card. You can check so the other player will either bet or also check behind you. In case the other player does not check, then you should re-raise and pressure him on your next move.

The check-raise hides the real strength of your cards from your opponent, if it’s not a genius like Kathy Liebert obviously. Re-raising will again force the opponent to think that you have a stronger hand. That is pure aggression that will win you the game.