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Who the next card helps

Which turn and river cards help the preflop raiser and which help the caller, and what to do when a card suits your range but not your hand.

A reference page: an idea the course assumes, without practice or progress. Lessons link here the first time they use the term.

Tell which turn cards favour the preflop raiser and which favour the caller.
Explain how one card can move both range advantage and nut advantage.
Keep betting on cards that help your range and slow down on cards that do not.
Decide whether to play your range or your hand by the kind of opponent you face.

Concepts used: Dynamic and static boards, Range advantage

Every card redraws the ranges

The flop sets up range and nut advantage; the turn reshuffles them. Each new card makes some hands better and others worse, and because the two ranges are built from different hands, most cards help one range more than the other.

You can measure it: read the range equity on the flop, add the turn card, and see which way it moves. A card that moves it towards you is a good card for your range; one that moves it away is a bad one.

The ranges here are the concept library's illustrative ones, written by hand for teaching rather than taken from Rail's solved charts. How far a card moves the number is approximate; which way it moves is the lesson.

One flop, three turns

Take T♦6♣2♠ with a button open against a big-blind call. The flop is close, with the button a little ahead. Read the button's number in the widget, then add each turn card below in turn.

Matchup

Pick 3 to 5 board cards

Range equity

Raiser · Button open: 51.5%
Caller · Big-blind call: 48.5%

In the top 10% of hands

Raiser: 18.2%
Caller: 17.3%

Illustrative ranges, written by hand for teaching — not solved.

The flop alone. Add A♠, then 4♠, then 9♠ as the turn, and compare each with this number.

A♠: an overcard the button holds far more of. The button's range equity jumps.
4♠: a low card that connects with almost nothing. The number barely moves.

Which cards help whom

Overcards to the board, especially aces and kings, usually help the preflop raiser, whose range holds more of them.
Low and middling cards that connect with the board usually help the caller, who defends more suited connectors and small pairs.
A card that completes a draw helps whichever range holds more of that draw.
Low cards that connect with nothing tend to change little for either side.

Barrel, slow down, or play your hand

As the preflop raiser, the turn card is a big part of whether you keep betting. On good cards for your range you can bet again with more of it; on bad cards you check more, and the bets you do make come from hands that still want money in.

As the caller, a good card for your range is where leads and raises become possible; a bad card means defending with more care.

Sometimes a card is bad for your range but great for your hand: the 9♠ that hurts the button's range gives the button's 8-7 a straight. Against strong players, think about the range and keep some strong hands among your checks. Against players who call too much, simply bet the hand.

The river works the same way, with one difference: no more cards are coming. Draws that missed become bluffs or give up, and the only question is who holds more of the hands that now win.

Rules of thumb

Judge a card by how it moves range equity, not only by what it does to your own hand.
Overcards, especially aces and kings, usually help the preflop raiser.
Low and middling cards that connect with the board usually help the caller.
Bet more of your range on good cards and slow down on bad ones.

When they break

Against players who call too much, a card that is bad for your range but great for your hand is a card to bet, not to balance.
Against a caller with an unusual range, such as one who defends every suited hand, the usual good and bad cards shift.