Poker Basics - Board Texture

Was it a wet flop or a dry flop? If you have no idea what we are talking about it is time for a lesson in board texture and its importance.

If you have ever wondered what is meant by a 'wet flop' or a 'dry flop' you are not alone. What these two terms refer to is known as 'board texture' in poker. 

Board texture essentially refers to how likely it is that the players have made a significant hand after the flop/turn/river has been dealt. It is very important to recognise board texture because it should dramatically impact your strategy. 

A wet board texture is one which has potentially improved a lot of likely holdings. It is when the community cards are connected in such a way that they likely gave people pairs, straight draws, flush draws or better. 

The flop above is a good example. This flop hits a lot of likely top pair type hands like AQ,AT,KQ,QT,JT, it also makes a straight draw for AK,AJ,KJ,J9,J8,J9 and any two heart hand makes a flush draw, while any straight draw with one heart also has runner runner outs. TT,QQ,KK and AA all will also like this board.

Dry flops

A dry flop is an unconnected board texture which is unlikely to have improved many hands. Often it will be the case of the best hand preflop is still the best hand post flop. 

Using the example in the picture on the right, there are no immediate likely straight draws, no flush draws and it is unlikely anyone played a hand which gave them two pair. So the best hands on this flop will be sets, overpairs and single pairs. 

On wet flops you can typically be aggressive with a good hand and bet big, because there are a lot of hands that can call you that you are ahead of. In fact you don't want to give many free cards on a wet flop because you can let somebody outdraw you. If you have a draw it is often worth trying to hit it because of the potential to win a big pot from somebody else who has a big hand. 

Dry flops, on the other hand, tend to be a little bit more a case of being way ahead or way behind. You can expect bluffs to work a little bit more and might have to bet smaller to extract value, because the ranges have not improved all that much. 

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