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Anytime the board pairs in hold’em, the situation has changed.  This is especially true if you are holding or drawing to a hand that is a flush or lower.  You must learn how paired boards change the dynamics of play in hold’em in order to avoid losing large amounts on some of your big, but not huge hands.

The nut flush is fantastic when it’s the nuts.  When you have As9s and the board reads 4s 5s Jc Ts, you’re loving life.  You can’t be beaten.  At least for now that is.  But what do you do when the river pairs the Jack?

4s 5s Jc Ts Jd

Now you have the nut flush, but not the nuts.   There’s a big difference.  Look at the board and look at what the nuts is now. Quad jacks.  Followed by jacks full of tens, a hand that is quite likely, given most players like to play JT, especially if it’s suited.  Now your flush is no longer the nuts, and you very well may be beaten.  Caution is in order!

Anytime the board pairs, you need to realize that trips, full houses, and occasionally even quads are possible hands your opponents might hold.  Because of this, overpairs, two pairs, straights and flushes don’t have the same value any longer.  A couple of examples:

1. You have AA and the flop comes down K J 7.  There’s a bunch of action, and the turn comes a 6.  Again there is action and the river comes down a K.  You’re in trouble.  Check and call, if you’re facing two bets cold, fold your aces.

2. You have As8s and the flop comes Ks 9s 7h.  There’s plenty of action and the turn comes down a terrific 2s.  More action ensues.  You bet and get raised, you reraise and your opponent calls.  The river is a K.  You must now only check and call, as it’s very likely you’re facing  a full house.

There are hundreds of examples like these, but I think you catch my drift so far.

In addition, paired boards sometimes mean you should not even bother to continue.  For instance, say you hold JTs and the flop comes KKJ.  There is no need to continue here in most cases, as even if you improve, you’re likely to be second best or worse anyway.

There are a few cases where a paired board is quite good for you, even though you don’t have trips or better.  For instance, say you raise preflop with AA, get reraised by one opponent, and you raise again, capping it.  Flop is K 2 2 rainbow.  This will often be a great situation for you, even if three or four handed.   The reason is that many players will have AK here, leaving you way ahead.**  Also, suppose someone has KQ here and catches a Q on the turn.  Your aces-up still beats their kings-up.  It’s not that likely in a short handed pot that was capped preflop that someone will have a deuce here.

Finally, when you’re the one who’s benefited from  the pairing of the board, you should take advantage of it.  If you have JT and the board is

4s 5s Jc Ts Jd

then you should be trying to extract bets from the player holding As9s!

There are too many specific situations to list everything you need to know about paired boards, but this should get you started.  Just remember that paired boards need extra scrutiny, and often extra caution on your part, especially if you don’t hold the nuts.

PokerGuru

** note: it’s possible someone might have KK here, thus having flopped a full house.  However, it’s far more likely they’ll have AK than KK.  We’ll discuss how to account for these considerations later, in a more advanced look at probability and hand reading

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