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After
you are dealt your two-card hand, and we have the first
round of betting, a card is "burned" (discarded
facedown), and the flop is dealt. The "flop" is
three community cards dealt faceup in the middle of the
table. Once it hits the board, your hand becomes pretty
well defined. You should be able to formulate a good idea
of your chances of winning the pot. The first step in playing
the flop is reading it-determining what your hand is and
what the likely hands of your opponents are.
When the flop hits the board, you finally have a poker hand
and so does everyone else. You need to be able to quickly
determine your own hand and the possible hands of other
players. Let's start out by looking at some flops and determine
what hands are possible. 10?9?8?.
This is a scary looking flop-all of one suit and in sequence.
A straight flush is possible with this hand-in fact more
than one. Q ? J ? makes a straight flush, as does 7 ? 6
? . The Queen-high straight flush is the best possible hand,
but so is a Jack-high straight flush with a J ? 7 ? . In
that case having the Jack in your hand would block anyone
from having a Queen-high straight flush. So there are three
possibilities for a straight flush with this flop, and two
of them could occur simultaneously.
The next highest hand would be an Ace-high flush. An A •
with any other Diamond makes this hand. Any two Diamonds
make a flush. The same card combinations that make a straight
flush, without the Diamonds, would make a straight.
Of course, even if you don't have a made hand with this
flop, if you hold a single A? you've got a good draw. Even
a K? is often worth playing with a flop like this. A lot
of hands are possible with this flop. If you don't have
one of them, you're not going to like it much.A?K?7? |
