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Are you often making a continuation bet on the flop and your opponents keep calling you down? You don't know what to do next? Double barreling is a move when you "fire a second barrel" on the turn in an attempt to force your opponent to lay down his hand, after you have missed a flop and opponent calls your continuation bet.
Barreling in poker is usually where best players make most of the money, without showing their hands. It is an advanced poker strategy that, if used correctly, can be very beneficial to you in the long run. In today's competitive games, double barreling is quickly becoming one of the most fundamental aspects of the game and it should be mastered by any serious poker player.
When should I double barrel ?
- High Cards: These cards are the “scare cards” for your opponents. Let’s say you make a continuation bet on a J 7 2 board and get called. If turn is a high card, such as A or K, then this is the perfect situation for you to fire a second barrel. Your opponent is most likely calling on the flop with a medium strength hand such as middle or top pair, so overcards on the turn make it very hard for him to continue and build the pot size further. In his eyes, A or any other high card, is a very dangerous card for him as it represents your range perfectly.
- Position: When opponent checks to us and we are in position, this tell us a lot about strength of his hand and we can take down the pot on many occasions. When we are out of position, we are not sure if opponent’s hand improved or not and therefore we are playing a guessing game.
- Opponent style: When deciding whether to double barrel or not, opponent’s playing style becomes a big factor as well. If we are playing against an opponent who is “tight” and plays only his best hands, we should be extra careful and proceed only with our stronger hands. On the other side, if we are playing against opponents who are “loose” and have wider ranges, then we can bet more often and get them to fold as they are holding many weak hands such as middle pairs, gut shot, weak draws, etc.
Fire your double barrels when turn cards scare your opponents, you are in position and when you have some equity in the hand.
Let's look at an example when we should be double barreling:
You raise on the button with K 9 and your opponent makes a call from the big blind. The flop comes down Q 7 2 . It's checked to you and you bet ¾ of the pot and get called. The turn is an Ace of clubs which is the perfect card for you to fire a second barrel as your opponent is basically forced to lay down any pair, even the weak Q's.
When should I NOT double barrel ?
Let's use the same example as above but pretend that turn is another 2, pairing the board. This is a card that should not scare our opponent after he called our flop bet and does not represent a good spot for us to bluff further. If villain called us on this flop then there is no reason for him to think that we are ahead of him now that board paired (unless he thinks we could have a 2 in our range which is very unlikely).
Same thing also applies to any low cards on the turn which are also not good opportunities for double barreling since we will be getting called down way too often with no real equity in the hand. In general, we should avoid double barreling when:
- Turn card pairs the board
- Turn card is lower to the board.
- We are playing against calling stations that don’t fold very often.
- When we don’t have any equity in the hand
Don't barrel low turn cards or paired boards against calling stations or other players
As always, it is important to be patient and pick your spots carefully. Double barreling is becoming a mind game between the players and is essential to every player's success. Not only you will become a better player by mastering this technique but you will also learn and understand how to bluff in poker and improve your overall game
Read other articles from our Advanced Poker Strategy section.
Posted by M.B |
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