Table of Contents
Texas Holdem Poker Tips – Broadway hand
We’ve all run into the situation many times where we’re in back position with a player in the blinds playing to the flop round. However, most of us have a better understanding of when to raise with a wide range and are less aware of how the wide range interacts with a wide variety of public hands.
So, as an exercise, let’s walk through a preflop and flop round scenario. I’ll stop halfway through to test you.
You’re in button position and the players in front of you all fold. Your raise range is：
- AA-22 (all pairs), AK-A2 (all Ax cards)
- KQ-K8, K7s-K2s
- QJ-Q8, Q7s-Q5s
- JT-J8, J7s
- T9-T8, T7s
- 98-54 (ties), 97-64 (ties with a point spread), 43s, 53s
This is at least a fairly common lead-raising range – all pairs, all cards with aces, all double high cards over 10 (Broadway hand), some non-flush cards with overcards, some flush cards with overcards, and some straights.
I have three questions for you about this lead-raising range. First read the questions, then close your eyes for a moment and think about your answers. So, now let’s begin.
What percentage of your starting hand do you raise with?
This list above includes 690 of the 1326 possible starting hand combinations, which means that your range includes 52% of your starting hands.
The big blind player calls and the flop is J♠ 3♠ 2♣ .
How many combinations in your range have at least one pair on this public side of the board?
This flop blocks (blocks) 46 of the 690 combinations in the raising range. Of the remaining 644 combinations, 69 are pocket pairs (9 of the initial 78 pocket pair combinations are blocked); 73 are non-pairs that include a jack (12 each of AJ-J8, plus one J7s combination); 12 A3 and A2 combinations, and four other flush draws (K3s, K2s, 53s, 43s).
This means that 158 of your 644 flop round bottom card combinations – about 1/4 of this range (24.5%) – have a pair or better.
How many combinations in your range do you have that don’t make a pair but have a flush hear or straight hear?
There are 9 flush Ax and 8 flush Kx that do not form a pair. We also list 6 Qx flushes that do not make a pair, 3 Tx flushes and 9 other flush combinations (5 combinations of straights and 4 straights with a point spread). This constitutes 35 flush combinations. Among the straight combinations, there are 16 two-end straight combinations and 48 gutshot combinations (A4, A5 and 64). Of course, there are four combinations that we have already counted, since they are also flush draws. This makes 60 combinations of straight hearings.
Out of the 644 flop round range combinations, we have 95 hearing combinations, which is about 15% of our range.
Even if we raise with a wider range, we still hit the flop face often
I hope this simple exercise has improved your understanding of the general condition of wide ranges on this common public side of the board. Although you raised with a very wide range, it is not particularly difficult for you to have some hand power on this seemingly unimpressive flop of J♠ 3♠ 2♣.
These three components of your range – the pair, the flush hear and the straight hear – plus your double high card, make up half of your flop-round range.
How to play with all of these cards is a more difficult question (not to mention the other half of your range), and when you are starting to get into this situation, try to improve your understanding with these types of questions, which will help you improve and understand your betting and checking ranges.
