In case you are the last to play on the river, the situation, of course is much, much better. Your problems now are totally different. After your opponent’s check you evaluate your hand in order to decide is it suitable for increasing the pot size or to bluff. In case it is not, you should check. In case you believe that your hand is very strong comparing to the hand of your opponent, you should place a bet i.e. you should increase the pot size in the most classical waу of doing that.
If your opponent places a bet, try to evaluate again his hand but do not forget that there is a possibility of bluffing as well. Based on your analysis you should make your decision by answering the question: does your hand have enough chances for a call? It is important to know that even for the tightest players the probability of bluffing on the river is not more than 10 %!
Posted in The play on the river is totally different from playing on the other streets. Now the combinations are already formed and no one can improve his/her hand. The most important question is: are you and your opponents ready for the showdown? Very often people make mistakes when answering to this question and these mistakes cost them a lot.
The main philosophy of the play on the river is: the mistakes on the river cost really a lot and very often can destroy any, even the most excellent play on the previous streets.
As we already mentioned, you should continue the attack on the turn only in case you have a strong hand, this is why for now you should not include the bluff on the turn as an useful technique. An exception can be made in situations when you play against one or two opponents, you have attacked during the pre –flop, the flop did not help forming strong draw hands and all players (including you) said check. If the turn is not an important card, you can bluff. For example: You have a Queen of clubs and a Jack of clubs, the flop is 2 of clubs, 2 of hearts and 7 of diamonds, the turn is 9 of spades – then you can place a bet.