Board textures

Every board label on the table, and how each card shifts ranges.

The same hand can be a monster on one flop and nearly worthless on the next. What changes is the texture: how the board's cards fit together, and which hands in a range they help. With Board labels on, the app describes each board in one short line, like Two-tone, connected, middle · wet. This guide explains each word and what it does to a range.

In short

• Every board label answers one question: which part of their range did this help?
• Flush cards help ranges full of suited hands; overcards help ranges full of big cards.
• Dry boards change ranges slowly; wet boards can flip them in one card.
• Turn the labels down once you can name the texture yourself.

Suits

On the flop:

• Rainbow: three different suits. No flush draws yet.
• Two-tone: two cards of one suit. Flush draws are now possible.
• Monotone: all three of one suit. Flushes are already possible, and any one card of that suit gives a flush draw.

On the turn and river the app labels the flush situation instead:

• Flush possible: three of one suit. Anyone holding two of that suit has a flush.
• Four to a flush: four of one suit. A single card of that suit makes a flush.
• Flush on board: all five cards are one suit.

A turn or river with no flush yet but exactly two suits showing is still called Two-tone.

Suited hands are only a small part of most ranges (4 combos of AKs against 12 of AKo), so a flush card helps some ranges much more than others. A player who calls with lots of suited connectors gains from it; a range that's mostly big offsuit cards and pairs doesn't.

Pairing

• Paired: one rank twice.
• Double-paired: two ranks twice each (turn or river).
• Trips on board, Full house on board, Quads on board: the rare ones.

An unpaired board gets no pairing label.

Paired boards are short on strong hands. On T-T-4 there are just two tens left, so trips are rare, and most of a range has either a pocket pair, a four, or nothing. That makes them good boards to count combos on.

Connectedness

This is about straights. Two ranks form a link when at most one rank is missing between them: 9-8 and 9-7 are links, 9-6 is not. Each rank counts once, and an ace counts high or low, whichever makes the board more connected.

• Connected: two or more links, or three or more different ranks that fit inside five in a row (like 6-5-2), or a straight already on the board.
• Semi-connected: exactly one link.

A board with no links gets no connectedness label.

On a connected board, ranges full of suited connectors and middle cards hit hard. On a disconnected board like K-8-3, straight draws are rare, and the range that holds the most big cards and big pairs usually has the edge.

Height

The board is labeled by its highest card:

• High: ace, king or queen high
• Middle: jack, ten or nine high
• Low: eight high or lower

High boards tend to favor the player who raised before the flop, because their range holds more big cards. Low boards tend to help the caller, whose range holds more small pairs and suited connectors.

Wet, medium wet, dry

The last word sums up how many draws the board allows. It combines suits and connectedness:

• Wet: flush draws possible and the board is connected or semi-connected.
• Dry: no flush draws and the board is disconnected.
• Medium wet: everything in between.

Suits count as wet on a two-tone or monotone flop, on a turn with two or more cards of any suit, and on a river only when three or more cards share a suit (no more draws are coming, so two of a suit no longer matter).

On dry boards, ranges change slowly: what was ahead on the flop usually stays ahead. On wet boards, many hands are drawing, and the next card can change everything.

When a new card arrives

On the turn and river, the app tags the new card with what it changed. These are the moments ranges shift the most. Several can show at once.

• Flush possible: the third card of one suit arrives. Their flush draws just got there; one-pair hands got worse.
• Flush draw appears: on the turn, a rainbow flop gets a second card of one suit. Nobody has a flush yet, but some of their hands now have a draw for the river.
• Board pairs: the new card matches a rank already on the board. Hands with that card now have trips, and two-pair hands may now be beaten.
• Straight possible: more straights are possible than before, or there's now a higher straight. On Beginner the app also says how it's made, like Straight possible: any J or 6.
• Overcard: the new card is higher than everything already on the board. Pairs below it, and any pair made with the old top card, just got worse.

A card that changes none of these, a blank, gets no tag.

On T-9-8, the straights that were already possible were QJ, J7 and 76. The 7 adds more: now any jack or any six makes a straight, so the label fires. A 3 on the turn wouldn't fire it: the same hands make a straight as before, and QJ is still the best.

Putting it together

Each label answers one question: which part of their range did this board help, and which part did it hurt? Ask it every street. A flush card is great news for a range full of suited hands and bad news for one full of big pairs. An overcard is good for whoever has more big cards. A blank changes almost nothing, so their range stays close to what it was.

Try it

When you're comfortable, set Board labels to Changes (only the new card's tag) or Off, and name the texture yourself before you look.