The Freecard in Texas Hold'em Poker (explanation and examples)

Introduction

In this article you will learn one of the standard concepts in No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker. This concept is so important that even David Sklansky spent a whole chapter on it in his classic The Theory of Poker – the so-called freecard.

Definition and concepts

A freecard is exactly what the name suggests, a free – that is, no charge – card, in Texas Hold’em Poker on the flop or on the turn.

Look at the example and assume that in the given situation MP3 was the last player to raise before the flop and MP2 just called. On the flop, MP2 checked MP2 even though he holds the top pair with Ace Queen with the best possible kicker. MP3 can get a freecard in this situation by checking behind.

The definition and the simple example already imply the first three important conclusions.

1. If you’re holding the best hand, you don’t want to give your opponents a freecard because that would mean giving them a free chance to improve their own hand over yours to the winning hand.
2. If you don’t think you’ve got the best hand, you’d like a freecard. Because that would give you a free chance to win the pot.
3. The concept of the freecard impressively illustrates the importance of position. You can only get a freecard in position. If you’re out of position, you don’t have that choice. At most, you can give your opponent a freecard, which is probably not a good idea if you think you’re holding the best hand, but not the nuts.

When to give a freecard

Based on these findings, it is important to develop an awareness of when you can grant your opponent a freecard and when you should not allow it.
Take a look at the examples from “The Theory of Poker”.

In both cases you will hold an overpair once with Jacks and once with Aces. In both cases, you are about equally likely to hold the best hand. However, there are many more cards with Jacks that can destroy the value of your hand than in the Aces example. If you hold Jacks, every Queen, every King and every Ace on the turn would lead to a very difficult decision for you, as your opponent could easily beat you now. On the other hand, if you hold Aces, neither a Jack, nor a Queen, nor a King, and certainly not an Ace is a problem for you.

Based on these two examples you can draw two conclusions:

• If there are many dangerous cards that make your hand worthless, tend to bet yourself. Under no circumstances do you want to give your opponent the chance to beat you with the next card without paying a price.
• When there are few dangerous cards that make your hand worthless, you tend to at least consider checking. A freecard for your opponent is not harmful, and with a healthy mix of bet and check, you leave your opponent in the dark about the true value of your hand.

How to get a freecard

If you follow the recommendations given in the corresponding article for your preflop game, you should play in position on the flop in the majority of cases. This means that you will often find yourself in a situation where you can try to get a freecard.

Take another look at the example I used to get into the article, but imagine that MP2 didn’t decide to check, but bet.
In this situation MP3 can try to get a freecard on the turn with a raise. This succeeds if MP2 only calls the raise.

In the example, the jack falls on the turn and improves the hand from MP3 to second pair. Due to the shown aggression, MP2 can no longer be sure to hold the best hand with Ace Queen and checks. If necessary, MP2 may also consider his hand so strong that he wants to check/raise. MP3 now has the option to take a freecard and decides to do so in the example. This is an advantage for him, since every King, Jack and 9 improves his hand to either a straight or a three of a kind with showdown value and he sees the next card through the check for free.

Pros and cons freecard

Finally, let me give you some thoughts on the pros and cons of freecard.

• The freecard is not 100% free, it costs the price of a bet or raise in the previous betting round.
• A bet or a raise in the hope of getting a freecard puts you at risk of a check/raise. Therefore, be clear beforehand how you want to react to this situation.
• With trash it is often better to give up than to hope for good luck on a freecard.

On the other hand, there are of course also arguments for a freecard

• On the one hand, the freecard raise is an important tool to keep your game flexible, as it leaves your opponent guessing as to whether a bet or a raise means real strength or not.
• On the other hand, and this is a very strong argument, playing on a freecard for a relatively small price gives you the chance to win a pot that would otherwise probably have been lost.

Summary and prospects

In this article you have learned the theory and some examples of the concept of the freecard. I approached the topic by drawing the rather obvious conclusion that you don’t want to give your opponents a freecard with the best hand. However, if you’re assuming that you’re holding the worst hand, you’d be very happy to get a freecard. I’ve also introduced you to concepts about when you can afford to give your opponent a freecard and how you can get your opponents to give you a freecard. Finally, I shared with you some thoughts on the pros and cons of freecard.

If you want to learn more about freecard, I recommend the book The Theory of Poker , which I already presented in one of the previous articles.