When To Fire A Second Barrel In No-Limit Hold’em

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You raise preflop, and one player calls. The flop misses you. Your opponent checks, and you bet. Your opponent calls. The turn misses you. Or maybe it gives you a draw. Or maybe it gives you a weak made hand. Your opponent checks. Do you bet, or do you check? If you bet, that’s called firing a second barrel, and this post gives you a few rules of thumb for when firing a second barrel might be a good idea.

Here are some conditions that should make you want to double barrel:

1. A weak-tight opponent who doesn’t like to stack off without a big hand. Often they’ll “take one off” on the flop to see if they improve and if you’ll bet again. If they don’t improve and if you bet again, they’ll fold. Hence, bet again.

2. A scary card that’s unlikely to have hit their range. If the flop is T 8 4 and the 7 comes off on the turn, that doesn’t qualify because straight and flush draws are a big part of the “take one off on the flop” range. But the K would qualify. It’s an overcard that could easily have hit you but probably missed someone taking one off on the flop. Overcards are sort of the standard “scare card unlikely to have hit their range,” but flush cards can sometimes qualify, or even the top card pairing can be a good card to try again on. Another bad card for double barreling is if the middle card on the flop pairs, because a lot of flop check-calls are made with middle pair.

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