What is Rainbow in Poker?
Rainbow means “all of different suits” in poker. It’s commonly used to describe board textures in Hold’em and Omahabut can be used in any situation where no two cards are of the same suit. A rainbow flop texture is one where all three cards are of different suits. A rainbow starting hand in Omaha is one where all four cards are of different suits.
What is Ragged in Poker?
Ragged in poker implies little to no connectivity between cards. It’s commonly used to describe a very dry flop texture in Hold’em and Omaha. An example of a ragged flop texture might be Q62 rainbow. There are no possible flush draws, and straight draws are somewhat unlikely. The term rag may also be used to describe any additional unconnected card that is dealt, similar to the term brick.An offsuitAx hand in Hold’em might be described as “Ace-rag”.
What is Qualify in Poker?
Qualify in poker means that our hand meet the criteria for making a low hand in split pot games. For example, Omaha Hi/Lo split is often named Omaha 8 or better based on the qualifying rule for low hands. In order for a low hand to be legal, we need to hold five unpaired cards which are 8 or lower. If we don’t meet this requirement, our low hand does not qualify and we can only compete for the high half of the pot. On some board runouts it might be impossible for anyone to qualify(there needs to be at least three cards 8 or lower on the board).
What is Protection in Poker?
Protection refers to the act of betting a hand specifically to prevent our opponent from being able to see extra cards with 100% frequency. A protection bet is generally made with a hand that is likely to be best but is vulnerable to being outdrawn. Protection is an important part of poker strategy that is commonly misunderstood by the average player.
