Flop Textures

Flop Textures

Section
Poker Basics
Category
Poker Hands

In Hold'em, being able to properly understand the threats presented by different flops is a critical factor in making correct decisions post flop. It's being able to make these calls that will either make or break you as a player.


In Hold'em, being able to properly understand what threats different flops present is a critical factor in making correct decisions post flop. Being able to interpret flop textures is your next step after being able to understand the cards in your own hand!

In this article, we'll go over the basics of properly reading flop texture.

What is flop texture?

Flop texture refers to the type of cards that come out on the flop. Flops that contain all suited cards, all high cards, or all random cards, are all different types of flop textures and will need to be played differently. Your decisions on how to play after the flop will be dependent on how your opponents range has hit various textures.

Types of flop textures:

1. The dry flop:

A dry board refers to one that is unlikely to have hit anyone's range. Say for example a tight player raises before the flop (where we can assume he's holding two big cards or a pocket pair) and then the flop comes out 2c 5h 8d. As this board is not coordinated and consists of small cards, it's unlikely to have hit the range of our opponent. Therefore, we call this a dry board.

2. The coordinated flop

A coordinated board refers to a flop that contains a lot of cards that work together to make a 5 card hand. Examples of a coordinated flop would be 5c, 6c, 8d, which would make it possible for both flushes and straights to draw further on the hand. These types of boards become dangerous when 3 or more players are in the hand.

3. The scary flop

A scary flop is one that contains one or more high cards that are likely to have connected with our opponents hands. Examples of a scary flop include Ac, Kd, Tc, where hands like AK, AQ etc have made a very powerful hand. Scary flops are great for both bluffing and getting maximum value from weak opponents.

4. The paired flop

A paired flop is similar to a dry flop, but sometimes our actions will be slightly different. A paired flop is one that already has a pair, and therefore, makes it less likely that our opponents have made a strong hand. (It?s easier to make a pair than three of a kind). These types of boards often lead to a situation where first player to bet takes down the pot.

In our next article, we'll discuss more advanced concepts such as how to exploit these different flops to get maximum value from your opponents.