3 Tips For Playing Paired Boards (via Lucid Poker)

Paired boards are interesting as they present unique characteristics that may throw off even seasoned players.

This article delves into the essential concepts for navigating paired boards effectively.

We’ll explore how to assess relative hand strength and recognize situations ripe for controlled aggression or cautious restraint. Whether you’re a seasoned player or a dedicated learner, understanding paired board strategies is critical to advancing your game.

Let’s dive in!

Tip #1: Pay Attention to Who Has More Trips

When assessing your c-betting strategy on a paired flop, the most important question is: “Who has more hands that contain the paired card?”

This is the fundamental driving factor of the optimal strategy.

There may be situations where the ranges are in such a way that the in position has the upper hand. There are situations where it’s kind of equal. And finally, there are situations where the out of position player (preflop caller) has the advantage.

All three of these scenarios warrant a different approach and I will give you one example for each:

Example #1 – When the Aggressor Has Way More Trips

You open-raise from the Button and the Big Blind calls. The flop comes Kd Kh 6s rainbow. Here’s what the c-betting strategy looks like using Lucid Poker:

We can see here that the optimal strategy is to c-bet with the entire range (range bet) of hands using a small size (1.5bb into 5bb).

Why is that?

Well, there are a few reasons. But the most important one is that Button’s range is made out of 12.6% trips or better, while Big Blind’s range only contains 9.9% of trips or better.

There are a few other reasons, such as having the overall range advantage and being in position. Button’s range advantage is due to the overpair of Pocket Aces, the unique underpairs (Pocket Queens through Pocket Tens), and stronger non-made hands.

Because there are so many of these strong hands that Big Blind cannot have due to just calling preflop, your strategy should be extremely aggressive as the Button.

Example #2 – When Both Players Have a Similar Number of Trips

You raise from the Button and the Big Blind calls. The flop comes 9d 9c 6s.

Here’s what the optimal c-betting strategy looks like:

Here we see a massive shift from the previous board. This time, the optimal strategy is to check back 40% of the time. 

One of the main reasons for this shift is the lack of nut advantage. In this case, the Big Blind has around 11% trips+, while Button has 10% trips+. This means the Button is at a slight nut disadvantage.

The reason why Button is still c-betting 60% of the time is because it still has the positional advantage and range advantage (provided by the overpairs and stronger non-made hands).

Example #3 – When the Preflop Caller Has Way More Trips

You open-raise from the Lojack (UTG in a 6-handed game) and the Big Blind calls. The flop comes 7c 7d 4c.

Something interesting happens on this flop: Big Blind should take the lead by donk betting with some hands. Here’s what that range looks like:

Here, we can see that the Solver elects to donk bet using a small size with 33% of the range. I will not dive into the specifics of this strategy, but rather focus on the levers which created it. Here is a breakdown of the Big Blind’s range by hand class:

If you look at this picture and add up the trips+ hand classes, you will end up with 7.1% of the range being trips+.

Now take a look at the percentage of hands in each hand class for the Lojack’s range on 7c 7d 4c:

When we sum up the trips or better hand classes in Lojack’s range, it’s only 2.5%. That is a colossal difference. This is the type of asymmetry that is required for a donk betting strategy to become not only viable, but optimal.

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Tip #2: Use Small Bet Sizes

Paired boards all have one thing in common: It’s very hard for both players to have a decent hand.

This means that most of the opponent’s range is made out of hands that miss (to varying degrees). When holding a hand that totally missed, your opponent will fold whether you bet big or small.

For this reason, you should look to bet very small (between 25-40% pot) to punish this large chunk of very weak, indifferent hands.

Tip #3: Simplify Your Strategy

Simplifying your strategy should be one of your highest priorities. Nobody will ever be able to perfectly replicate a solver output.

Now, when I say simplify, I don’t necessarily mean range betting or range checking.

Take a look at the example where the Lojack raises, gets called by the Big Blind, and the Big Blind checks on 7c 7d 4c:

Range betting or range checking would be a big deviation that can be exploited pretty hard. That being said, I would accept a range bet strategy here as a decent simplification since it’s very hard for your opponents to pick up on it.

But, if you feel like you’re deviating too much from optimal and that makes you a bit insecure, you can do smaller simplifications. Let’s come up with one such simplification now.

All hands are indifferent between c-betting and checking at equilibrium in this spot (except Pocket Sevens). This means that we can look at the overall frequency of each hand and round it up to the nearest 25% or 50% increment.

This would lead to a strategy that is extremely close in betting/checking frequency to the GTO solution. You don’t need to remember 40/60, 70/30, 20/80 splits. 

But I’d actually take it one step further: you can just split everything 50/50. This way you have massively simplified your strategy without losing any accuracy. And that’s way easier to remember and execute at the table.

Final Thoughts

You’ve taken a step toward mastering paired flops. The next action step for you is to get very good at knowing both your range and your opponent’s range so that you’re able to compile the optimal strategy on the fly.

There’s really no better way to do that then by studying with the Lucid Poker Trainer. This tool has been improving every day, with new situations and features that make studying poker easy. It’s also the best value trainer on the market (you get every game type and stack depth for just $49).

That’s all for this article! I hope you learned something new from it and that you enjoyed it as much I enjoyed writing it! If you have any questions or feedback please let me know in the comment section down below!

Want to learn more tips courtesy of my time inside the Lucid Poker Trainer? Check out What To Do When You Turn A Flush (3 Tips From Lucid Poker).

Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!

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