Board-Reading in Post-Flop Poker

Post-flop poker often largely depends on the current poker situation unveiling. And a good read of the poker situation is helped by reading the board properly.

Reading the community board in the right manner helps us see where our hand stands, especially post-flop. When the flop is revealed we must see where we stand in relation to the board, and also see where the others stand by how they benefited from the flop. Most poker plays in Holdem, like in Sit and Go, are hinged on the outcome of the first flop. This is necessary for continuing in the game.

When we see the flopped cards we must quickly determine whether our hand is still playable. In a large sense, the flop determines the life of our hand. We may have selected what we believed was the best pre-flop hand possible with our cards, but the flop confirms this. Then we decide what we should do in post-flop poker, whether to play or fold. If the flop gives us a go signal to play, the next issue is to see what bet amount is appropriate. If the flop says our hand stinks, then we fold to save some chips from unnecessarily going into the pot.

Determining hand quality at the flop may be done on the following bases: the hand is good if we flopped a set or something higher than it. Another consideration is if we flopped a top pair plus a reasonably good kicker or a two-pair. Trips can also be considered or 4 cards with the potential of making a flush or straight draw. A good sign is also flopping a top pair plus a bad kicker or a second or a third pair.

If we flopped sets or higher cards, we take advantage by post-flop aggressive betting to get a sizeable pot worthy o our set or higher hand. A top pair plus a good kicker needs to be played with care because they're not that strong, though they may be improved on the turn or river. And developing such hand may spell either the win or lose of a post-flop poker play. It's easy playing with a flopped nut flush but quite different with 4 cards that is aimed to complete a high flush of queen.

Thus, in summary, we want to maintain a small pot and wait for the hand to develop into something like a set or higher post-flop. Then we can resume an aggressive bet strategy.