how do you play against a raise on the turn?

[phalanx0]

I am 20 years old and have been playing poker seriously for 2 years now but i still cant beat any tables online (i play mostly 1/2 limit). I basically am a break even player and make money with bonuses and other such promotions.

One part of my game that I know I am alosing alot of money on is when you are in a hand with top pair or something like that and you lead on the flop and get raised(or checkraised) on the turn. I almost always call this raise and then call the bet on the river that usually follows and usually end up losing that hand.

I know for a fact that I am definately losing lots of money in this situation. I feel like folding to a raise or a checkraise is a very weak move and that usually on the river the pot is so big compared to one BB that i have to call the river bet.

How do handle this very common situation? Skalansky said in his low limit book that you should rarely fold to a rare because more observant players would take advantage of you later and that you need to call on the river because of the pot odds. When this situation comes up the times that I win dont even come close to compensating me for all other times that I lose.

Thank you in advance.

[sthief09]

unless you have a specific read on someone, it's really tough to fold top pair headsup. it may seem like you're always losing in those situations, but the money in the pot makes it such that you don't have to win very often for a calldown to be better than a fold

[stevew]

In the lower limit games, a raise or check/raise on the turn usually means the guy has the goods. But somehow I usually manage to talk myself into calling the raise "to see what happens" on the river.

[SeaEagle]

Folding too often to a turn raise is far more expensive that folding too seldom. If you're playing your hand well up to the point where you get raised, you'll be OK most of the time if you call the hand down.