One very strong fourth-street maneuver, which works well in no-limit poker but is hard to do in limit poker, is to make it unprofitable for your opponents to keep betting their drawing hand. This technique involves placing a bet that's too high for a drawing hand to call (in most situations). it's best done when you have a high pair, a set (when the board looks dangerous), or a hand like AK (where it looks like all missed the flop).

This hand works against most adequate poker players, but it is most effective against those who obviously are playing with pot odds and expected value in mind. it's important, however, not to be predictable in this.

Essentially, you'll need to try to figure out what your opponent(s) is holding, and if it looks like they're aiming to improve their hand, make it very hard for them to do so. This strategy of ?cutting them off at the flop? can save you big down the road.

So how much do you need to bet to make calling unprofitable? Half the pot is a good place to start. (Realize we're dipping into NL strategy here--in limit poker, you don't control the size of your bets, of course, and a check/raise is the only similar tool--one that's much harder to control.) If you bet half the pot, and are going head-to-head against a single opponent, you're giving him 3:1 pot odds. That means his outs, etc., have to be around 4:1, probably no worse than 5:1 (taking into account implied odds, online ?risk? play) for him to continue.

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