Flop bets by board type

In this lesson

• Bet small and often on high, dry and paired flops.
• Check more and bet bigger on middling, connected flops.
• Play monotone flops with small bets and more checks.
• Explain why protection matters little on static boards and a lot on dynamic ones.
• Read range advantage (whose whole range is ahead on this flop) and nut advantage (who holds more of the strongest hands): the first sets how often you bet, the second how big.

Read first: Why the preflop raiser bets the flop · Advice, not a lock: every lesson opens.

Concepts used: Board texture, Range advantage, Nut advantage, Dynamic and static boards, Bet sizing and polarisation

Two advantages, two questions

Every flop asks the raiser two questions. How often can I bet? That follows range advantage: whose range is ahead, and by how much, on this board. How big can I bet? That follows nut advantage: who holds more of the hands at the very top, the sets, two pairs and straights that win big pots.

The two can point different ways. On a king-high dry board the raiser is ahead overall but holds only a few more of the strongest hands: bet often and small. On a middling connected board the big blind's suited connectors and small pairs make many of the strong hands, and the raiser's lead overall is thin: bet less often, and when you bet, more of it is big.

Board by board, from Rail's library

The table below is Rail's own flop library: for three common lines, how much of the raiser's range bets at its first flop decision, averaged over the solved flops in each board group. Read it as directions, not targets to memorise.

• High and dry boards, king- or queen-high: the raiser bets most often, mostly small.
• Paired boards: frequent and almost always small; few strong hands exist, so there is nothing to build a big pot with.
• Low boards, seven-high and below, and middling connected ones: the big blind hits them, so the raiser checks more; what bets is more often big.
• Monotone boards: small bets and more checks; big bets are rare, because one card of the suit turns a strong hand into a second-best one.
• Ace-high boards are their own case: the raiser holds more aces, but ace-low boards with wheel cards give the big blind straights and two pairs.

Protection and the next card

On a static board, where few turn cards change who is ahead, a medium hand loses little by checking: there is not much to protect. On a dynamic board, where many turns complete straights and flushes, the same hand prefers to bet, both for value now and to charge the draws. That is the protection part of a bet, and it grows with how dynamic the board is.

Practising it

The split exercise gives you the raiser's whole range on one of the library's flops after the big blind checks, sorted by hand class. You decide for each class whether it mostly checks, bets small or bets big, and Rail grades each class against its own solve of that flop.

The range and nut advantage items use the concept library's hand-written teaching ranges, not Rail's charts, and say so. The split and the table come from Rail's flop library; your own hands on flops it did not solve are read from the nearest solved flop.

Rules of thumb

• Range advantage sets how often you bet; nut advantage sets how big.
• High dry and paired boards: bet often, bet small.
• Low and middling connected boards: check more; bet bigger when you do.
• Monotone boards: small bets and plenty of checks.
• The more dynamic the board, the more your medium-strong hands want to bet now.

When they break

• A big blind that never check-raises lets you bet thinner and more often on the boards where you would usually check.
• Deeper stacks favour checking more and betting bigger: the strong hands gain value and one pair loses some.

Example hands

Practice

The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.