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GENERAL POKER STRATEGY - BOARD EVALUATION
One of the interesting aspects of Hold'em Poker is the ability for you to see five of your opponents cards (Cards turned up on the Board).
Granted, they can also see five of your cards; however, most players are so busy playing their own hand that they have little time or interest in evaluating yours.
One of the first steps in evaluating board cards is to see if a flush or straight is possible. The simpler way to do this is to remember that you can only use two cards in addition to the board, thus a flush is only possible if there are 3 cards of one suit on the board. A straight is only possible if there are 3 cards already on the board close enough to each other that they can be filled in to make a straight with just two additional cards of your choice. Naturally, just because a straight or flush is possible, doesn't mean your opponent does have a straight or flush, but he could still have something which beats your hand.
Other possible things to look for is a full house (Full Boat). There must be at least 1 pair on the board for a full house to be possible. It is important to realize that whenever there is 1 pair or more on the board, it is also possible, though less likely, for someone to have four of a kind, unless you have one of any card that is paired on the board.
There are a few instances where the board itself makes the best possible hand, (where it can not be improved by replacing any cards). In this case all players play the board and do not use any of their hole cards, thus creating a split pot. Be careful however, that you evaluate the boards properly in these rare cases, as someone may actually improve on the board by playing one of their own cards. An example being that the board may show a king high flush. Although there is indeed a flush for all players on the board, a player with an ace, of the flush suit, would rank higher as they now would have a higher flush than the board and consequently win the pot.
Keep in mind that most of the time a possible high hand does not mean someone actually has it. A good bet is usually to bet scare cards that fall on the board to represent to the other players that you have what the board indicates is possible. Will you lose this bet occasionally to someone who actually has this? Sure, and when you do lose, you will usually lose big; but most of the time they just don't have the hand and a bet or raise may well win you the pot right there. It helps, of course to have somewhat of a hand when you make these bets so that you are not depending on an outright bluff to win.
Senior Poker Columnist
Janice Carroll
www.headsuppokerchampion.com
Not enough theory? Then read some of our other poker articles:
Hold'em Starting Hands - Evaluation of the Hold'em Starting Hands
Computer Analysis - Computer analysis of the hands
The Bonus Factor - The added bonus factor and its consequences
Or you can head straight to the online poker section, where you can put all of you knowledge to test and play online with over 70.000 other players.