Reading the Board Pt.4

Zero Boards

Zero boards are a common occurrence. When you see a board that does not contain a straight, flush, or full house possibility AFTER the river card hits the board, nor is there any three cards within five ranks of each other and NO three or more cards of same suit, and the board will NOT be paired, it is known as a zero board. The highest possible hand will always be exactly three-of-a-kind. Zero boards are easy to read and you can easily figure out what your opponents may be holding.

Examples of zero boards:

37) A

The best possible hands here are three aces, three kings, three 9's, and three 6's. This same logic applies to the other three example that follow.

38) K

39) A

40) A

So here you don't have to think about the chance of a straight, flush, or full house possibility. Just think about the likelihood that your opponent has flopped a set against you. He or she may have offered you a tell of this by a lot of preflop raising and then continuing to bet throughout the hand, then usually its a safe assumption that he or she has a set of Aces or Kings, with a zero board such as ex. #37 or #39.

If you hold 5

, or 3

with a board like ex.#38 and didn't see any preflop raising or action in the hand, chances are you hold the best hand.

If you haven't taken notice, examples #13 through #24 are the same as examples #1 through #12. The difference is I have added a turn card. Examples #25 through #36 are the same as the turn card examples only with the river card added.

Answers to "Test Your Knowledge" questions #1-3

1. You can do no more with the kings and the jacks. You must create some new cards. The answer? Pocket aces to make two pair: aces over kings.

2. Any two cards you use to call the final bet and turn face up on table. All are playing the straight on the board.

3. Once you have accounted for all possible quads (four-of-a-kinds), then you look for the possible full houses, followed by flushes. Now kings full of 8's and jacks full of 8's are possible, however a player holding either of those hands would also have, respectfully, kings full of jacks and jacks full of kings, so those hands wouldn't count.
8's full of kings is the fifth best hand. Now notice that this logic can be applied to 8's full of jacks, which makes the ace-high the sixth best hand. (note: the player would have jacks full of kings also).

By now you should be able to retain some of these hand possibilities. Now I would like you to challenge your memory skills without the answers in front of you. Now take the Hand Value Quiz. Coming Soon!

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