Limit Poker Tip of the Day - BET THE RIVER

Players leave money on the table by failing to bet the river. A common betting pattern you will find in limit hold em is call, bet, bet, check. You've probably done this yourself. You call the blinds before the flop, catch a good hand - something like top pair with a good kicker - so you bet the flop and bet the turn too. But when you fail to improve to three of a kind or two pair, you decide to check the river to save a bet on the odd chance you're beaten.

Most of the time, the river card is not going to promote your opponent's hand to one that's better than yours - as long as you've had the best hand going into the river. If you have the luxury of acting last, and the river card doesn't spell "flush" or "straight" for one of your opponents, go ahead and bet. You're likely to be safe, not sorry, if you do. Even if the last card puts three cards of the same suit on the board, any player fortunate enough to catch his flush card on the river usually comes out betting when it's their turn to act. And if they had a bigger hand than yours BEFORE the river (a flopped set or top 2 pair) then you can be sure they'd do their check raising on the turn, not the river.

(Thanks to Lou Krieger)