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The Poker Professionals Association
Research Chapter
08
Hold'em Board Evaluation
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One of the interesting aspects of Hold'em Poker is the ability for you to see five of your opponents cards (Cards turned up on the Board).
Granted, they can also see five of your cards; however, most players are so busy playing their own hand that they have little time or interest in evaluating yours.
One of the first steps in evaluating board cards is to see if a flush or straight is possible. The simpler way to do this is to remember that you can only use two cards in addition to the board, thus a flush is only possible if there are 3 cards of one suit on the board. A straight is only possible if there are 3 cards already on the board close enough to each other that they can be filled in to make a straight with just two additional cards of your choice. Naturally, just because a straight or flush is possible, it is not generally likely and more often than not, your opponent would not have a straight or flush but could still have something which beats your hand.
Other possible things to look for are full houses (or Full Boat). This is possible only if there are 3 cards already on the board to make a full house. Consequently, there needs to be at least 1 pair on the board for a full house to be possible. It is important to realize that whenever there is 1 pair or more on the board, it is also possible, though less likely, for someone to have four of a kind, unless you have one of any card that is paired on the board.
There are a few instances where the board itself makes the best possible hand, (where it can not be improved by replacing any cards). In this case all players play the board and do not use any of their hole cards, thus creating a split pot. Be careful, however, that you evaluate the boards properly in these rare cases, An example being that the board may show four aces and a jack. Although there are indeed four aces for all players, a player with a king or queen would rank higher as they now would have a higher kicker than the board.
Keep in mind that most of the time a possible high hand does not mean someone actually has it. A good bet is usually to bet scare cards that fall on the board to represent to the other players that you have what the board indicates is possible. Will you lose this bet occasionally to someone who actually has this? Sure, and when you do lose, you will usually lose big; but most of the time they just don't have the hand and a bet or raise may well win you the pot right there. It helps, of course to have somewhat of a hand when you make these bets so that you are not depending on an outright bluff to win.
For your convenience in relationship to the current topic, and as a continous reference, the poker point system is attached below.
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POKER PRO POINT SYSTEM
With the point system we assign each card a specific relative value or points. As expected, the Ace receives the highest value; however, you will note that cards rankings from 8 down receive no value, unless paired, connected or suited.
For learning purposes, we are using Texas Hold'em Poker game primarily because it is currently the leading money game both for tournaments and live play and it the easiest to use to demonstrate the point system, as only two cards are dealt each player initially. Naturally we will cover the use of the Point System in other primary poker games in later research chapters.
Individual Card Point Values:
- A= 6 points
- K= 5 points
- Q= 4 points
- J = 3 points
- 10=2 points
- 9 = 1 points
- 8 = 0 points
- 7 = 0 points
- 6 = 0 points
- 5 = 0 points
- 4 = 0 points
- 3 = 0 points
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2 = 0 points
Pairs receive an extra value of 8 points.
Suited cards receive an extra value of 3 points.
Connected cards receive an extra value of 2 points.
Suited cards are written with a small "s" as: KJ's
Connected cards refers to directly adjacent cards such as: KQ or AK or KQ or QJ, not KJ or AQ.
Examples of values of first two cards dealt in Texas Hold'em:
- AA=20 points (6 points for each ace plus 8 points for a pair)
- KK=18 points (5 points for each king plus 8 points for a pair)
- QQ=16 points (4 points for each queen plus 8 points for a pair)
- AK's=16 points (6 points for the ace, 5 points for the king plus 3 points for being suited and 2 points for being connected)
- JJ=14 points (3 points for each jack plus 8 points for a pair)
- KQ's=14 points (5 points for the king, 4 points for the queen plus 3 points for being suited and 2 points for being connected)
- AK=13 points (6 points for the ace, 5 points for the king plus 2 points for being connected)
- AQ's=13 points (6 points for the ace, 4 points for the queen plus 3 points for being suited)
- T,T=12 points (2 points for each ten plus 8 points for a pair)
- AJ's=12 points (6 points for the ace, 3 points for the jack plus 3 points for being suited)
- AT's=11 points (6 points for the ace, 2 points for the ten plus 3 points for being suited)
- KJ's=11 points (5 points for the king, 3 points for the jack plus 3 points for being suited)
- KQ=11 points (5 points for the king, 4 points for the queen plus 2 points for being connected)
- 9,9=10 points (1 point for each 9 plus 8 points for a pair)
- AQ=10 points (6 points for the ace, 4 points for the queen)
It is interesting to note the value difference of 3 points between AQ's and AQ. This demonstrates the importance of suiting and is helpful in evaluating the correct value of a AQ starting hand. Suited it is definitely playable while unsuited it can be a marginal hand often played for more than it's worth.