Good cards and opportunities to apply Double Barrel

Double barreling and triple barreling are actions of continuing a bluff or semi-bluff after the flop. In this case, you missed the flop and continue betting. The turn is still a neutral card for you, but you believe that your opponent will fold if you fire again, i.e., double barreling. This concept is misused by many bad regular players. Many players are too aggressive at inopportune times. Let's take a look at this and understand what can be good and what can be bad when deciding to fire the second barrel.

Good cards for Double barrel

In many spots, a good double barrel card is usually a higher card than the highest card on the board. The theory behind this is simple. When an overcard comes on the turn and you bet, your perceived range gets stronger and your opponent's gets weaker. This is because the calling range for flops tends to be top pair, middle pair, or a weak draw, since good hands tend to raise the flop. It's worth remembering that this isn't always the case. On dry boards, people will slow play strong hands more often. On the other hand, you'll get folds from almost any hand that isn't at least top pair on the flop. It's important to know your opponent. Some villains won't believe you for anything. Against these players, be prepared to fire multiple times or just don't fire at all.

The worst card for a Double barrel is a card that doubled on the board. For example, on a board of :Tc :7d :2h, the worst card for a Double barrel would be a T, a 7 or a 2. With emphasis on the T. The best cards would be J or higher. If the board doubles, we know that your hand is unlikely to have improved. If you had an overcard or a draw, they know that your hand hasn't changed at all. It's also more unlikely that you will have the card that doubled, since there are only four of them in the deck.

Another good opportunity to apply the second barrel is when the first card is very high, and the second is also high. For example, on a K94 board, any card above 9. This thinking shows that we would be able to make our opponents fold hands like 9x, middle pairs and floats with ace high, which would be a large part of our villain's range, compared to a minority that would include Kx or sets, really strong hands.

Put the lessons learned in this article into practice at 888 Poker! Create your account now through this link and receive $88 for free* (* $8 in cash and $80 in bonus)

Double barrel with triple barrel in mind

There is another time when you can throw the second barrel. If you think your opponent's range is weak and will call a second barrel but fold to a third. You should only bet the turn here if you are also going to bet the river. An example is when you believe your opponent has equity but does not want to raise the hand. For example, if he has a bottom or middle pair that turns into a straight draw or a drill. They can call here again, but they will always fold to the third barrel if they do not improve their hand. The hand here develops very obviously and when they hit it will be easy to know. An example is a 9TK flop with an 8 turn. All mid-value hands such as J9, TJ, QT, KJ, 79s and T7s will call the turn because they know they have added equity but will almost always fold on rivers if they do not hit anything (blank).

Against good players with good reads, the second barrel may seem obvious. However, the fact that these situations usually improve your range with good cards that come on the turn puts opponents in a difficult situation knowing that they will still have to face a possible bluff on the river. Many regulars will think “OK, that’s obvious”, but they will still fold because they think they will have to fold on the river or make a hero call, which introduces a lot of variance. When you start getting more light calls, it is obvious that you should adjust your range and bet more for value.

For example, if you have a pair of jacks on a T62 board. The turn is a K and you can still bet for value. The river brings a Q and you can bet for value again and get called by Tx or something like an 88. On the other hand, if you have QJ in this spot, you can bet the K on the turn and also bet for value the Q on the river. Remember, when you hit a good card on the turn or river, bet for value. Don't be afraid now, especially if you would have bet this spot as a bluff anyway.

Party Poker is back in Brazil! Learn about the bonus and benefits when creating your Poker Dicas affiliate account.

Shooting good opponents

As you move up in stakes, you will encounter players who know all the moves, so this is where advanced thinking comes in. You can bet bad cards to second barrel because they will think that you shouldn't be double barreling in this situation as a bluff and will think that your hand is strong. However, you don't want to fool yourself. These players are not the majority. If you don't want to bluff in bad spots to second barrel because you will usually have value hands, do it less often, so your range will point to this type of action as a real value hand.

An example of this would be a K73 flop, the turn comes a 7 and you continue betting. In this case, you will get a lot of folds from hands like 5's-Qs and even maybe some weaker K's or draws, as the villain assumes that you would never bluff in this spot, as the 7 is a bad card for the second barrel. If you are up against good opponents with good reads, a bad card for a second barrel can be an excellent opportunity.

Article translated and adapted from the original: Good Double barrel cards