Explanation of Dry
The driest types of board textures in Hold’em and Omaha are as follows -
1. One face-card and two other non-connected cards of different suits. Eg Kh8s3d
2. Paired board textures. Eg. JsJd4c
Low textures such as 6s2c2h are often also considered relatively dry, but it’s worth keeping in mind that any hand with overcards is technically a draw to make top pair. Such low textures are hence typically more dynamic than the aforementioned Kh8s3d
Example of Dry used in a sentence -> We 3bet preflop and the flop game down Queen-high dry.
How to Use Dry as Part of Your Poker Strategy
Although the board texture itself does not always tell us what the best play is, it’s worth keeping in mind the following characteristics of dry textures.
1. Made hands are typically less vulnerable and don’t need to fear being out-drawn.
2. Dry textures limit positional advantage. It’s most valuable to have position on drawy textures.
3. There are less combinations of strong made hands on dry textures. This forces us to continue with a larger selection of backdoor draws (after all, there may be zero direct draws available).
See Also