Reading the Board

A critical skill for the beginning Texas Hold’em player is the ability to read the board. These means being able look at the community cards on the table and calculate the strongest possible hands at any given moment in the game. This will then give you an indication as to the actual value of your own hand in relation to the best possible hand at that moment in time.

As time progresses you’ll evaluate what you see before you to evaluate your opponents ‘potential’ pocket card holding. Sometimes it’s easier than others.

Assume the flop (1st three communal cards dealt) was:

With this flop the highest possible hand at the moment ("the nuts") is someone holding:

The second, third and fourth highest hands would be
 or  or
 or  or
 or  or

After that, two pair and then aces with large kickers.
Suppose the board after the turn (4th communal card dealt) looks like this:

Now the highest hand is a straight flush

and the second highest hand is four of a kind

On the river (last communal card dealt out)

Now a higher straight flush is possible

Single Card Straight Flushes

Of course it is often not necessary to have the absolute nuts to win a hand. In the preceding example (depending on the betting) a players two card holding hand that contained the king of diamonds would give them the nut flush which could easily win this hand, and someone with pocket aces shouldn’t hesitate to bet and raise (and re-raise!) with their hands on the board before, and after, the last card has fallen. The point here is to know what hands are possible so you aren’t trapped in a raising war thinking you have the nuts when you don’t.

Especially when there are four of the same suit on the board, consciously look for a single card straight flush possibility when you hold an Ace of that suit!

The most common example of this is a board like the following:

Someone holding a hand like

might raise indefinitely on every betting round only to find out that someone holding

has beaten them on the end with a straight flush as the 10d completes the hand.

The Beaten Full House

Suppose the following flop is dealt…

when you hold…

Chances are that right now you have the highest hand. If you bet on the flop and are raised or re-raised you are still probably safe for the moment as other people holding a jack or any overpair raises you. However if the final board looks like this:

There is a much greater chance that you are beaten by a higher full house as players with a Jack in their hand to start with are quite possible holing either a King or an Ace with it thereby making your full house (444JJ) smaller than JJJKK or JJJAA.
Although you should call a bet with your existing pair of 4’s you probably do not want to get into a raising war at this point.

Glossary

Community cards – cards on the table available for all players, involved in any given hand, to use as part of their hand.

Kickers – In the event of a showdown the eventual winner of the hand may be determined by his ‘kicker’ card. E.g The completed flop shows A 3 7 2 9. Player A holds AQ, player B holds AJ. Player A would win the hand as not only does he have a pair of Aces (his Ace pairs the Ace on the flop) but his ‘kicker card’, in this case the QUEEN is higher than the kicker card of his opponent, the JACK, and any other card on the flop (highest being a 9).

Nuts – The best hand possible at any stage of the hand in play.

Overpair – player holding a pair (as their pocket cards) whose value is higher than anything on the flop. E.g player holds KK. Flop = 4 7 9 T T

Next week’s article is on Starting Hands