Reading the Board in Texas Hold'em
Since every player has five out of seven cards in common, you must have a flawless understanding of the possibilities that those five common cards give you and your opponents. So learn how to read the board. Most players do it by going through a subconscious checklist of what's possible:
1. If the board contains a pair, the big hands, quads and full houses, are possible. The ease with which opponents could make trips with a paired board really hurts you if you only have a pair.
- One tricky thing about a pair on the board is that it can nullify your two pair, like this: Suppose you hold As-9s. The flop comes up Ah-Jc-9c, giving you two pair. You bet, and an opponent who holds Ad-Th, giving him just a pair of aces, calls. Then suppose the turn card is a jack, making the board Ah-Jc-9c-Jd. Now, your little pair of nines is nullified, because both you and your opponent have two pair, aces and jacks. In fact, he is now beating you because he has a T (10) kicker to go along with the two pair, while you just have a 9. The fact that you have "three pair" is no help (unless another 9 happens to come on the river.)
2. If the board contains three or more cards of the same suit, a flush is possible.
- This is also the time to check for the possibility of a straight flush.
3. If the board contains three or more cards within a five-rank sequence, a straight is possible. This is the case with most Hold'em boards.
4. If none of the above is true, which is rare, three of a kind is the highest possible hand.
In addition to this general checklist, there are a handful of special boards that you should be prepared to deal with:
1. Four or five of one suit: First of all, watch out for the potential straight flush. Barring that or a paired board, the player with the highest card of that suit will win with the high flush. In a short-handed game, the winning card doesn't have to be that high. Four-suited boards often ruin the hand for you if you were betting any lesser hand.
2. Four to a straight: The pot could be won by the player who holds a single card necessary to complete the straight.
3. Five to a straight: Barring a flush, everyone splits the pot unless someone can extend the high end of the straight, which doesn't always happen in a small game. It never happens if the straight is ace high, called broadway. (Sometimes you can see casino players fold when the board itself gave the nut hand!)
4. Two pair on the board: The hand is usually won by the player who can complete one of the pairs to make a boat. Higher pocket pairs win sometimes, and even high kickers can win occasionally, especially if there hasn't been aggressive betting.
5. Trips on the board: There are three varieties of players in the pot when this happens: (1) one player who holds the fourth card of the trebled rank, who will almost always slow-play his quads; (2) players who bet strong because they can make a full house with their high pocket pair or by pairing an odd high card on the board; or (3) players who are hanging on because they can pair an odd low card. Winning with a high kicker with trips on the board is very unusual.