Reading The Board Texture In Poker

Poker Strategy – Reading The Board – Board Texture

Poker Strategy – Reading The Board and it’s Texture. Another part of our poker strategy must include reading the board and understanding the texture. If we fail in this area, it can be costly for us, yet for the opponent, a benefit. I see a lot of mediocre players making the mistake of only considering how the board impacted their hand, and not their opponents. They are being somewhat two-dimensional. By that, I mean they are so infatuated with their cards, especially good ones, that they fail to read the board and ask “What might my opponent have”? I can recall when I was playing the same way. I would get so caught up with my set of Kings, on an A,K,10 flop, that I would fail to think about my opponent potentially having Q,J.

The biggest downfall here is not knowing, or not thinking, about how to properly read board texture. How does the board impact your hand, and how does it relate to your opponent’s hand?

For the most part, the flop is the only time that a strong draw may be stronger than a made hand, such as a top pair top kicker, a set, or two pair. Depending on the board texture, what draws are there? Straights, flush?

Reading The Board – The Flop

Poker Strategy – Reading The Board. As you saw on the hand pyramid, there are 1,326 Pre-Flop starting hands. But once we ignore suits and take into account the possible flush, we focus on 169 hands.

There are 19,600 potential flops. 1081 Turn and River combinations. Taken individually, there are 47 possible Turn Cards and 46 possible River Cards. There are 2,598,960 possible combinations of a five-card hand. That’s a lot of board reading!

Reading The Board – Wet or Dry

You have probably heard the term “wet board” and “dry board”. Some players call a “wet board” a “draw heavy board”. A “wet board” or “draw heavy board” is when there are a lot of hands that could be made from that board. As an example, the Flop is As, 10s, Ks. That’s a wet board, as it has a potential Flush Draw, Straight Draw, Straight Flush Draw, along with all the possible two pairs, and sets. If this flop came during your game, it will almost certainly get checked around, at least once.

Now, let’s look at a dry board. Flop is 3h, 9c, Ks. Here, there are no meaningful draws. No Flush draw, the Turn, and River would have to be the same suit. No real straight draw either and only one high card. Sure, there could still be a set or two pair. But still, no meaningful draws.

Poker Strategy -Reading The Board – The Flop Can Change Everything

All that said, the Flop is where most hands are defined, as you have now seen 60% of the cards that will comprise this hand. This is where you will, most of the time, decide to continue with the hand, or to fold now. You have to be able to read the board and determine what would be the best hand you could make, as well as what your opponents could make.

Another example, let’s say you have the Ad, 10c. The Flop is Kc, Ah, 7c. What do you have? Well, you have a backdoor flush draw, albeit it is 10 high. You have top pair, with a somewhat ragged kicker and not much else. Remember, if you have an Ace, the odds of someone else also having an Ace are 75%. Now, if you nor the opponent with an Ace, doesn’t improve their hand, it’s a matter of who has the best kicker.

Reading The Board: Hand Strength In Relation To The Board

Poker Strategy – Reading The Board. Sometimes you will have what you think is a good starting hand, Pre-Flop. Pocket Jacks come to mind. Then, the flop is As, 3s, Qh. Now, you have a mess. Two over cards, a flush draw, and a straight draw. Those Jacks aren’t looking like “all that” anymore. This is why you must be able to read the board and focus more on what the board means, to other players, as well as your hand.

In the business world, we use the term SWOT Analysis. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. I use the same approach when I am at the poker table. Let’s do a SWOT on a pocket pair of Jacks – Js, Jd. The Flop is Kc, Ah,7c.

• Strengths: You have a pocket pair and that’s it.
• Weakness: You need to hit another Jack, at least, as there are two over-cards on the board, plus a flush draw.
• Opportunities: Not a lot. Your chance of hitting a Jack is about 8% on the Turn and 4% on the River. You could also boat, by hitting a Jack on the Turn or River, and the board pairing. Then again, it could snow in July, in Biloxi.
• Threats: If a Jack comes on the Turn, and it’s the Jc, then that completes the Flush. It also could potentially complete the straight, as could the Jh.

So that great Pre-Flop pocket pair of Jacks has lost nearly all of its value once the flop was revealed. That said, I have seen lots of players continue, until the bitter end, with those Jacks. Many times the board got worse, for the Jacks anyway, but they just couldn’t “lay down” a pocket pair. Don’t be loose, losing, Leroy.

We have covered some of the basic strategies regarding Reading The Board. We will get a little more detailed in our next segment. Be sure to check back in often, as we will continually be adding material to Pokerrailbird.com. See you soon.

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