Turn

The turn, also called fourth street, is the fourth community card in Texas Hold'em and Omaha, dealt face-up after the flop betting round and before the river. With the turn exposed, players have now seen four of the five board cards and have a much clearer read on their likely final hand and on the draws still live. The dealer burns one card before turning it, standard procedure to guard against marked or accidentally exposed cards. Betting tends to escalate on the turn for two reasons: the pot has already grown across the pre-flop and flop streets, and only one card remains to come, so draws are now priced very differently from how they were on the flop. Worked example: you hold four cards to a flush after the flop — nine 'outs' remain in the 46 unseen cards, giving roughly a 19.6% chance (9/46) to complete on the turn. You miss. On the turn there are now 45 unseen cards and still nine outs, so your chance to hit on the river falls to about 20% (9/45) for that single remaining card — far worse than the combined two-card odds you had on the flop. A bet that was a clear call on the flop can become a fold on the turn precisely because the discount of having two cards to come has vanished. The common mistake is paying flop-sized prices to chase a draw on the turn, forgetting that one card to come roughly halves your equity versus two. Recalculate your pot odds at every street. Compare with the flop, the river and the board, and remember turn bets are usually sized up for value or protection.