To win at Poker a novice Amateur poker player must learn to read the Board.  As vital as this skill is, it is often overlooked in the content of many poker lessons, mainly because authors and experienced players forget what it was like trying to learn to play poker and simply take this basic task for granted.   After realizing this, your personal Online Poker Tutor has taken it upon himself to introduce our beginners to this concept.  The board is the casual term for the shared community cards in Hold Em games.   Reading the board will allow you to recognize what types of hands are possible right now, and what types of draws are likely at this point in the hand.  This ability will complement your hand reading skills as you progress and are able to guage opponents' reactions to certain cards as they appear on the board, which is a necessary talent for amateur poker players who want to make money playing online poker.  I will go into great detail on how to judge your opponents' actions once different types of cards fall, but that will fall into another category of poker lessons.  

By the expression "read the board," I simply mean that a novice amateur poker player must be able to identify the dangers on each Flop, and thereby assess how to proceed with their poker Preflop hand, or hole cards, based on what seems likely to have helped adversaries.   There are four basic categories into which you can group almost any hold em flop: a safe board (no obvious draws), a paired board (containing two cards of the same rank, such as A-A-2-J-6), a Suited board (containing 3 or more of one suit among the community cards, making a flush possible), and a connected or semi-connected board (containing 3 or more cards needed to make a certain straight).   By knowing what type of board you are looking at, it will help you better judge the current strength of your Hold Em poker preflop holdings, and thereby give you more information on what your opponents may have and what they may need  to beat you.  This can help you avoid going broke with a Pocket Pair of red Aces on a board of 7 (of spades), Q (of spades), J (of spades), 10 (of spades), 9 (of hearts).  As you can see, any eight or any king makes a straight, while any spade makes a flush, and since no pairs are on this board, you cannot make a full house or Quads to take down the Pot.  Fold or Muck the Aces on this type of coordinated board.

The safe board is a series of community cards that offer no draws, and therefore no hand can be stronger than a set, or Three of a Kind.  Top set is the best possible hand on a  safe board, but any set will be very strong in this situation.   Another added security feature of a safe board may be that no overcards have fallen either, thus making high pairs less likely.  For instance, if you had pocket 10's, and the flop comes 2-5-9, three different suits, your hand appears very strong right now.  It is very improbable anyone can beat your overpair of 10s, so bet it aggressively.  At this point there are no truly legitimate draws that are strong enough to Call an aggressive bet.  The only possible draw would be a gutshot straight draw for someone holding 6-7 or 7-8, or 6-8,  or of course Ace-trey and Ace-four, none of which are likely to be in play in a raised pot, and none of which are even remotely likely to complete anyway.  So bet aggressively to prevent a donk with Ace-trey from catching an Ace on the Turn to overtake your 10's.  When apparent rags or blanks are dealt, fire away to protect and Value Bet your strong poker preflop pocket pairs.  You will not get enough of these hands and these types of flops, so take full advantage of them when you do and punish anyone wanting to draw on you.

A paired board is one of the most interesting and sometimes difficult to play, simply because so many hands may be possible.  Very often when the community cards hold a pair two very good hands may clash, such as a full house versus quads, or a flush versus a full house.  It should be noted, though, that a flop like 6-6-9 or 3-3-8 probably did not help anyone, so if you were strong preflop you should certainly bet, since usually these types of flops completely miss everyone.  This type of board is also one of the very best opportunities to Bluff in poker, mainly because players with straight and flush draws are often unwilling to draw to a hand that may very well be second best, so a bet here will take down the pot in most cases.  If not, you can safely assume the other guy has a piece of it, and simply refuse to put more chips in the middle.  Just remember that when this type of board is out it represents greater danger to a pair or straight and flush draws, so the Pot Odds must be excellent, exceeding your usual standard payoff to proceed.

When the community cards make a flush possible with three or more cards of the same suit, this is a suited board.  Three cards of a particular suit make a flush possible, so it is imperative that every player be able to recognize this.  Many bad players chase every single flush draw, so often this information will help you get away from a strong poker preflop hand (like Ace of clubs and Ace of diamonds) when that fourth heart comes down on the river and your opponent pushes All-In.  To learn to play poker and how to win at poker, every amateur poker player must first learn to recognize dangerous draws that threaten his hand, and also be able to discern when an opponent makes that powerful flush.  Reading the board correctly will help beginners do this, and will immediately improve their game.

The last type of board one must identify is the sequential board.  A sequential board contains several connected or semi-connected cards that make a straight possible.  Very often a straight will be the winning hand on such a board.  Here is an example of a sequential board:  Flop: 6-7-9  Turn:  A  River: 8  (Assume no flushes are possible.)

As you can see, there are three possible straights in this situation: 5 through 9, 6 through 10, and 7 through J.  Any player holding a single 5 or 10 has a straight, and anyone with J-10 has the nuts.  Under these circumstances, any pair, two pair, or set is unlikely to be best.  Realizing this will help the new amateur poker player save some chips on the river, and a penny saved is a penny earned as they say.

  The ability to discern possible draws based on the shared community cards is absolutely crucial to win at poker.  Those who want to learn to play poker and how to win at poker must learn and develop this basic but critical skill.  Reading the board correctly will also improve a player's hand reading skills, one of the most important in any player's winning online poker Strategy.  Learning these poker lessons should help beginners understand what types of hands they can beat and which ones they cannot simply by deciding what cards work best with the community cards.  In the long run, this is a very significant ability that every player must master.

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