Explanation of Preflop
“Preflop” literally means “before the flop”, where the flop refers to the three community cards which are dealt after the first betting round in variants such as Hold’em and Omaha. The first betting round is hence referred to as “preflop”.
Note that the term only applies to games where there are 3 community cards dealt on the second betting round (referred to as the “flop”). Draw and stud games do not have a flop, hence the terms postflop and preflop do not apply to such variants.
There are three streets that make up the postflop betting rounds called flop, turn and river.
Example of Preflop used in a sentence -> Preflop play is especially important in poker games where the effective stacks are shallow.
How to Use Preflop as Part of Your Poker Strategy
Postflop play is crucial in poker, since this is where the pots get largest. It’s also the area of the game where the most possible information is available to players. It’s therefore considered that the later the street, the bigger the edge that exists between a good player and a novice player. The skilled player knows how to make efficient use of the available information while the novice player has the tendency to get more and more lost as the hand approaches the later streets.
See Also
Postflop, Community Cards, Hold’em, Omaha, Flop, Turn, River
