Read The Board

[rigor mortis]

When the flop goes down you know the strength of your own hand.
What the board can tell you is the strength of the other players' hands, by the manner in which they bet. Study the three cards and make up imaginary or possible hands they may hold. At times it is best to imagine a "worst case" scenario, and think "What If He Holds ....."
This can often mean the difference between winning and losing

 

[monstr999999]

Cool! Thank you)))
we will use now...
:icon_comp:icon_comp:icon_comp

 

[VMVarga]

I like this idea. I had a similar one recently but I didn't really try it out. Its not as fun to watch games where you can't see any hole cards, but this could be a really good way to practice without having to play or wager. I will have to try this out today.

 

[perrywh]

If your not thinking about what villain holds your not playing poker correctly.

 

[luckybet89]

When the flop goes down you know the strength of your own hand.
What the board can tell you is the strength of the other players' hands, by the manner in which they bet. Study the three cards and make up imaginary or possible hands they may hold. At times it is best to imagine a "worst case" scenario, and think "What If He Holds ....."
This can often mean the difference between winning and losing

So to touch on this a bit, because your correct completely, it goes very deep and gets even more precise. One of the things a lot of the pros take into consideration is how many combos there are of certain hands.

• 16 possible hand combinations of every unpaired hand.
• 12 hand combinations of each unpaired offsuit hand.
• 4 hand combinations of each suited hand
• 6 possible combinations of each pocket pair.

There are 1326 total combinations of all hands that can be dealt pre-flop, from Aces to 3-2 offsuit.
Now the first step of course is to assign your opponent to a range of hands you think he can have, than you start doing the card removal to kind of narrow it down even farther. For example
You are in a tournament Closer to the ICM stages and generally everyone is playing solid poker, you are on the button and have Kd Qd and early position raised 3.5x the bb. You just called.
The flop comes Ad Ks 7h and mid position continuation bets 1/2 the pot. How can we decide if we should call or not?
So far we know the opponent is a solid player and opened up from early position which signifies strength so we can put him on a range of 7-7 through A-A , A-K, A-Q, A-Js, K-Qs, K-Js. Now this is where the combos come in to play. We hold Kd-Qd so there are certain combos we can automatically take away and this example is just using the hands in his range. So we can remove the combos of A-K, A-Q, A-J suited diamonds, we can remove 1 combo of As-Ks as well as a combo of Ks-Js as well as Ks-Qs and now we have a bit more information to go on.
When you look at what cards are left you can start to build a better idea of his possible hand to an even further extent.
This is a very basic and maybe even confusing(hopefully not) example of reading the board using card combo's and card removal. I will link an article that explains it more in depth for those who are curious.
This isnt meant to teach card combos but more to illustrate the fact that they exist and are significant to a degree and its what all the top players are practicing and taking into consideration.
https://upswingpoker.com/how-the-pros-take-advantage-of-hand-combinations/

 

[dragunovich]

you should read the situations of CB or check .. there are many players that can be preflop maniacs and callstation post flop

 

[xbronk]

I feel totally identified I always take out my imaginary hands Sometimes I am right sometimes I do not always keep accounts of what you have my abversaries I usually read well the hand noc if it is a sentence or a luck but I always do it good luck greetings:fight:

 

[bc2017]

Always be able to work out what is the nuts and 2nd nuts and evaluate how likely they are to have that hand - QJT flop, someone could have AK especially if they raised pre-flop. If the flop is 346, they are unlikely to have 75.

 

[EnigmaTTO]

This is definitely a problem of mine, especially when I have premium hands or flop what I think is the nuts. I've had way too many times where I lose a hand on the river and am like "Wait what?! How is that not mine?!" Only to realize that the other guy hit a straight or a flush on the turn or river. It's always obvious in hindsight and if I was actually paying attention I could have folded myself out of several bad situations.

 

[puzzlefish]

Very good observations. Sometimes the board can also be tricky. One situation I struggled with in the past is the idea that me hitting a set with two other matching cards in the board can mean that somebody may be holding a full house, or may hit a full house on the turn and river. So betting needs to be done with that in mind.

Another idea is that your two pair holding on the flop may look strong, but if they are not premium pairs then a lot can go wrong on the turn and river, such as your pairs getting counterfeited so that even an Ax or Kx opponent could beat you. So be careful with two pairs.. they are definitely not as strong as they look and leave you vulnerable to many other better combinations depending on what the flop cards are.

 

[rigor mortis]

One way to improve your board reading at home is to get hold of a deck of cards. Deal out three upturned cards and see how many hands you can make. If you want, write down the card's value and the number of combinations you can make.

 

[bstest]

Another factor to consider, is whether you are by nature a pessimist or an optimist. I understand the comments concerning percentages of possible hands, but I am not able to follow that. Returning to the issue of your psychological nature, try to shut it down and play to the value of your own hand and future possible value. Good luck.

 

[NWPatriot]

If you have ever downloaded Equilab from PokerStrategy.com (free download), they have an equity training tool that can really help you with this. To determine equity you use the same thought processes mentioned in this thread: if you believe you are ahead, then you determine what kind of opponent combos can catch you, and if you believe you are behind, then you determine what kind of turn and river cards will help you catch up. The combination of these 2 scenarios is your equity in the hand, and it all starts with the 1326 two card combos that are available. This is a great practice tool and can be a little eye opening as far as how much equity you really have (or don't have).

 

[whiskers77]

I think, it is very solid and reasonable to go through such a thought process, when we are seeing the flop. But what also need to be taken into account, so that we not become too "pessimistic", is against what kind of player are we playing at the moment and also against how many are we in a hand at the moment. Is it a loose goose or a nitty player? Is it more than one?

 

[MolonAA]

Always be able to work out what is the nuts and 2nd nuts and evaluate how likely they are to have that hand - QJT flop, someone could have AK especially if they raised pre-flop. If the flop is 346, they are unlikely to have 75.

a simple but very important tip for beginners. Congratulations and thank you.

 

[Leko]

of course is a

At times it is best to imagine a "worst case" scenario, and think "What If He Holds ....."
This can often mean the difference between winning and losing