Introduction

• What questions to ask yourself on the flop
  
• How to evaluate the board
• Aggressive vs. passive play
  

After you've made it past the pre-flop play and thus the first of four streets, the next decision follows on the flop. How do you continue playing your hand now? Which factors influence your decision and have to be considered? What dangers are looming and how do you avoid making big mistakes? This article deals with these questions.

What Situations can appear on the Flop?

Your situation on the flop is the result of your pre-flop actions. Theoretically, there are four possible scenarios that you can find yourself in:

• non-raised pot in position
• non-raised pot out of position
• raised pot in position
• raised pot out of position

The first situation results from when you limp pre-flop on a full ring table, and no further players except the blinds entered the hand with you, or when you overlimped after several limpers before you. While these situations could be avoided completely, they do take place every now and then. In such a situation, you are in a non-raised pot in position.

If you are sitting in the blinds yourself and don't have a really good hand, then you may have either completed in the small blind, or only checked in the big blind. This time, you are in a non-raised pot out of position.

The highest priority is of course given to play on the flop when aggression has already been shown pre-flop. Not only did someone already signal that he has a relatively strong hand, but the pot has also become a whole lot bigger, and so each decision costs considerably more than in a non-raised pot.

Naturally, there are again two logical scenarios: You are sitting in a raised pot, either in position, or out of position.

In case of a raised pot, you obviously have to differentiate even further: Were you the last aggressor pre-flop and therefore have the initiative? Or did you only call in order to see the flop? In other words who is the one expected to claim the pot via a first bet on the flop (continuation bet)?

If you've internalized the pre-flop play, it should be clear which situation you would prefer: You are sitting in a raised pot, preferably in position, and you are the pre-flop aggressor. You have the possibility to collect the pot even without a hit via a continuation bet, or you are able to immediately bet for value with strong made hands.