Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Notice that you should not continue betting the turn
Notice that you should not continue betting the turn with marginal hands such as top pair because if you are raised on the turn, you will have a hard time figuring out if your hand is good. As in the A-Q example above, even if the turn is a blank, you should check the turn against most opponents because if you bet, you will have no idea what to do if your opponent raises. Checking in these spots is a form of pot control that will keep you from playing giant pots with hands that lose value as the pot gets huge.
Check-raising the Turn
Check-raising the Turn I personally only like check-raising the turn when I think my opponent has a strong hand while I have a stronger hand. From time to time though, I will find a spot to check-push the turn with a strong draw. When you check-raise the turn, be sure not to set yourself up to get pushed off the winning hand. When you have a strong hand out of position, you usually want to take the lead in the hand so your opponent will not be able to set his price throughout the hand, and you also want to avoid scaring him out of the pot. You can do this by leading into him on the flop or check-raising the flop or turn. When you think your opponent has a really weak hand, usually the only option is to just check-call every street and hope he bluffs. Lean toward check-raising if you think he has a strong hand, like K-J on a K-J-7-3 board while you have 6-5, as he will rarely fold and any spade could cost you a lot of money on the river.