Know thy board

Flops have different “textures,” and those textures can be much more or much less scary, depending on your holdings and your opponent’s range. More importantly, different people respond in different ways to different board textures. On a draw-heavy board, if a loose and aggressive player is check-calling you can expect him to have the near-nuts, but if a loose and passive player is check-calling you can expect him to have ... well, any damn thing. What affects the texture of a board? Well, let’s start with the flop.

Suitedness: flops can come “rainbow” (three different suits),

“two-suited” (two of one suit and one of another), or

“monochrome” (all three cards in the same suit). The more

“suited” a flop is, the bigger the hand most opponents will need to call. However, note that many hyperaggressive opponents will be more likely to bet out, check-raise, or “float” (smooth-call on the flop with the intent of taking the pot on the turn) with either a pure bluff or a semi-bluff (draw) on these types of boards. If you are first to act, you can often steal these pots for a reasonably small (2/3rds-pot) bet; if you are called, beware of the flush draw! One small bit of math: let’s say that the flop comes with three spades and you have none in your hand. The odds that your single opponent flopped a made flush are 3.3%

and the odds that he flopped a flush DRAW are 15.8%. If you’ve hit a solid hand (say, TPTK) DO NOT PANIC AND START CALLING! Bet out and protect against the draw that is 4.75 times more likely than the made flush that has you killed.

Besides, if your opponent actually has a second-best hand, he’ll be more likely to pay off a bet on a monochrome flop than he will to pay off a bet when the turn has FOUR spades (assuming he doesn’t have one). Bet while your hand is best and charge him well to try and outdraw you. Incidentally, if your board has three spades and you have one in your hand, the odds that your opponent has two spades drops to 2.6% and the odds that he has one spade drops to 14.4%, so the odds that your

opponent is drawing to a flush are now 5.6 times higher than the odds that he flopped the monster. Bet and protect!

Connectedness: here we’re talking about how many cards to a straight the board has. A monochrome flop of J-T-9 is MUCH more dangerous than a monochrome flop of J-7-2. Always be aware of straight draws -- they’re a gold-mine to the savvy poker player because so many people miss them. When the flop comes A-K-Q, the player holding JTs just stacked the preflop raiser holding AK. When the board is connected, you need to beware of two separate possibilities: your opponent might have two pair and your opponent might have an open-ended straight draw. Often, two pair is the scarier event, because your weak-but-made hand is often drawing very thin against it. A straight draw can become an almost unbeatable monster, but it has to GET there first. Two pair is already there. At small stakes games, many players will play very passively with a draw, check/calling in the hopes of improving, but they will play aggressively with two pair. Your more aggressive opponents will bet BOTH hands strongly. When someone plays back at you on

a fairly connected board, you need to decide if they’re likely drawing or if instead they’ve flopped some powerhouse hand.

Then you’ll proceed based on the strength of your hand in relation to the range you think is likely for your opponent. Much like a suited board, a connected board can often be used as a powerful bluffing or semibluffing tool. Say your 30/11/3 opponent raises preflop from MP and you call in position with 33. Heads-up, the flop comes 7-6-5. This is a REALLY good flop for attack aggressively: considering your opponent’s stats, the raise makes overcards much more likely than usual, so the odds that this flop has completely missed your opponent are higher than usual. A flop raise or a flop float can prove extremely valuable to you. In this analysis I’m completely ignoring your inside straight draw -- that’s virtually worthless since it’s highly unlikely to happen and also highly unlikely to get paid in any significant way by your opponent while still being the best hand. No, I’m saying that this flop is a good one for you because it is unlikely to have improved your opponent in any meaningful way. Pressing back hard should win you this pot quite often WITHOUT getting to a showdown.

High Card Value: your opponents love playing high cards.

Sure, you’ve outgrown calling raises with KJo and A9o (you HAVE outgrown that, right?) but they haven’t. Playing these easily-dominated hands will prove very expensive for your inattentive opponents, but realize this general rule: a flop that is high-card heavy is much more likely to have connected with your opposition than a flop that is high-card light. If an ace hits the board in a multi-way pot and I don’t have AT LEAST AQ, I’m usually done with the hand. Opponents love nothing more than playing aces, and when those aces hit the board your

opponents will hang on to their aces like they were made out of solid gold. Worse yet, a pair of aces with a J-or-worse kicker is going to be in oodles of trouble unless that kicker connects, too. Think about this:

say you have AJ on an ace-high board. The next highest board card is a T. If one other player has an ace, what are the odds that his hand beats yours? Well, AK and AQ obviously have you outkicked, and the unlikely AA has you decimated.

However, there are four OTHER aces that beat you -- the ones that have made two pair. That means you’re behind about as often as you’re ahead in this situation, and that’s even

assuming that your opponent “only” has an ace! You throw in the other random two-pair and set hands and your hand will win at showdown less than half the time. Worse yet, most opponents will get the message and fold their aces with weak kickers, but they’re unlikely to fold any hand that beats you.

The odds are that if you somehow create a big pot, you’re even MORE likely to be behind. In short, proceed with great caution on ace-high boards, even if you have an ace. King high boards are pretty dangerous, too, because the looser opponents will play many kings, especially suited ones. Q’s and J’s are less scary as a player’s high card, but VERY dangerous as a player’s LOW card. Someone willing to play KJo preflop is virtually never going to fold that hand on a J-high flop.

Recognize that the odds that your opponent has missed the board are highest on low-card boards, and much lower when the board has high cards. This is especially true if the board has more than ONE high card. One major exception to this rule: if you RAISED preflop, don’t give up when the flop comes with a high card, especially if that high card is an ace.

This is a fantastic chance to steal the pot. Statistically speaking, virtually any opponent you could face has a less-than-50%

chance of having an ace in this situation, but if you bet the flop they will assume you DO have one. A standard continuation bet will win the pot a surprisingly large fraction of the time. If they play back, fold and move on to the next hand.

Paired Boards: usually, a paired board is a cause for celebration. Why? Because with an unpaired board there are nine separate cards in the unseen deck that could give an opponent a pair. However, with a PAIRED board, that number falls to only FIVE cards. In other words, it’s now almost 50%

less likely that an opponent has made a hand good enough to want to continue. You should use this against them if it is

reasonable for you to do so. Mind you, if you limped preflop and the board is AAK, you can usually check-fold, because your opponent is not going to believe that you have the goods.

However, if you raised preflop and the board comes 884 a bet in a heads-up pot is virtually MANDATORY: your opponent will realize he’s missed, assume you have a pocket pair, and fold even more often than he would fold to a typical continuation bet. Paired boards are perfect for continuing preflop aggression.

Also, realize that most aggressive players know this, so if you happen to be in a pot that someone else raised, the flop comes paired and you’ve got a sneaky monster, consider a slowplay like a flop check-raise or even a “check/call flop, check/raise turn.” Your aggressive targets will fire off a continuation bet quite often, and you can then “snap off a bluff” and win a bigger pot than you otherwise would. Obviously, this will be opponent-specific, but keep your eyes peeled for such opportunities.

On the turn and river, similar issues with connectedness, suitedness, high card value, and board pairs will continue to pertain, and will define the “texture” of the board. As a general rule, a tight opponent will continue on “wet” (highly

coordinated) boards when he has a strong hand or a strong draw, but a loose opponent may continue with as little as top pair. An aggressive opponent can bet “wet” boards with a draw, a “combination draw” (straight and flush), or a pair+draw, and may even bet these boards on a pure bluff. A passive opponent betting into a “wet” board usually has the goods -- these folks rarely bet their draws. Now, to start to put this all together, let’s move on to the next rule: