1 Pair Turn Bets

[lapoker17]

I've been staying at Commerce all week and have been playing nonstop - a lot more than I have since when I started playing (and posting) last fall. One thing I've been thinking about a lot is the turn and how to best play 1 pair hands.

We all talk so much about pot control, and I'm normally at the forefront of such advice, but I think that turn checks have become a real leak in my game.

I've been playing in some tough games - the morning ones where the grizzled pros come in every day just like it's the office.

Here's something I've noticed:

The guys who make me the most uncomfortable are the guys who bet TPGK when checked to on the turn - even on drawless boards. And so I've started doing it more.

So much is obviously player dependent, but I just feel like we may go a little overboard here with the whole pot control angle.

I've been getting pretty good at value betting the river - it's been my focus for the last month or so, but now I'm thinking a lot more about value betting on the turn.

I think the live vs. online difference may be huge here - because the turn bets of which I speak are best against bad players - and there are so many of those in live games.

It's primarily when in position that this seems to be a good bet, and I'm just so used to checking behind that it feels weird to fire here - yet I'm doing it a lot now - and it works. I'm getting called by a lot of worse hands and following up on the river with bets that are proportionately the same in appearance, but are now much larger due to the extra bets on the turn.

I haven't read many poker books, so maybe I'm just talking about something that's academically basic, but whatever - I hope someone else relates.