Calling on Fourth Street

The First Two Cards

Let’s get back to how often you must call to keep very aggressive poker playersfrom having an automatic edge on you.

The question now becomes, how often do you need to call on fourth street?

And, should you still turn that top card into a “deuce” as you did on the flop?

To answer these questions there are three things that you need to realize:

Since the betting limit doubles, you opponent’s bet on fourth street is getting poorer odds. In our example he would now be betting $200 to win $900 as compared to $100 to win $400 on the flop.
There is only one card to come. Thus, if you make something you will only have one street to win more bets, as opposed to two.
Most opponents won’t bet as often. Not only does it cost more, but because you called him on the flop he will be a afraid that you will call again. There are a lot of players who will automatically raise before the flop, automatically bet on the flop, but then give up on fourth street when they have nothing. Learn seven card.

The conclusion is that against all but the wildest players you don’t have to call as much as on the flop.

However, this does not mean that you revert to a tight poker strategy.

When your opponent bets on fourth street you will still have to do a fair amount of calling since he is usually getting about 3-to-1 from the pot.

It’s just that you don’t need to call quite as frequently as you did on the flop.

The player on the button raises and you call out of the blind with:

The flop comes:Your opponent bets and you call.

The fourth street card is the:

You check, and your opponent again bets.

If this is a player who will not automatically bet again on fourth street, you should fold.

Your call on the flop will scare many typical players into thinking that you have a calling poker hand.