Sets on dry board

TheFO0L

TheFO0L

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Quick question: When you flop a set IP on a dry board like K♦8♣2♠, do you always bet, or do you check sometimes to trap?
I worry I miss value by slowplaying too much, but it feels weird to go huge on dry textures. Thoughts?
 
SPANKYSN

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If you are worried about missing out on some value bets, don’t go huge…put in a small bet that could look like you are probing…chances are, without someone hitting the king, they all fold, but they all check without a king anyway. Slow playing the turn is fairly safe, but there is no way you can let others get to the river without a hefty bet.
 
CaioRJ

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This answer depends on many variables, how you table position, your stake, the villain's stake and VPIP, if are a multi table way ou heads-up and etc ...
 
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Go for slow roll and make a trap!
 
TheFO0L

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Yeah i guess slowplaying works best on this textures
 
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fundiver199

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If you called preflop in position to setmine, and the preflop raiser bet, then its fine to just call, because often he will continue betting the later streets. Also if you raise, you cant represent any draws, so your hand looks pretty much like, what it is. But if it checks to you, you should definitely look to bet most of the time. You can occationally check back :ks4::kh4: on :kd4::8c4::2s4:, because you block top pair. But if you have :8h4::8d4: or :2h4::2d4:, its a significant mistake to not bet for value. As others have said, you dont need to bomb the pot, but a bet of at least 30-40% pot needs to go in.
 
S3mper

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If you called preflop in position to setmine, and the preflop raiser bet, then its fine to just call, because often he will continue betting the later streets. Also if you raise, you cant represent any draws, so your hand looks pretty much like, what it is. But if it checks to you, you should definitely look to bet most of the time. You can occationally check back :ks4::kh4: on :kd4::8c4::2s4:, because you block top pair. But if you have :8h4::8d4: or :2h4::2d4:, its a significant mistake to not bet for value. As others have said, you dont need to bomb the pot, but a bet of at least 30-40% pot needs to go in.
If we called preflop in an SRP and we have KK we made a mistake before we even got to see the K82r flop. ;)

Quick question: When you flop a set IP on a dry board like K♦8♣2♠, do you always bet, or do you check sometimes to trap?
I worry I miss value by slow playing too much, but it feels weird to go huge on dry textures. Thoughts?

We should be almost always betting our sets when calling preflop IP on these boards when checked to.
If bet into, I know that solvers tend to like to raise with bottom sets and mixing with middle sets - for bluffs you'll probably use some backdoor combo draws like 9Ts, J9s, A4s, A3s, at lowish frequencies.

If we opened and the BB called, and it checks to us (Which it should) this is definitely a range bet board. I know it sucks when they fold but by checking to trap, we now either have to start checking back some of our weak hands which should be putting pressure 100% of the time with a range bet or become the "Oh, he checked he's got a set" guy.

but it feels weird to go huge on dry textures.
Use ~30% sizing on these boards. Don't go huge.


This is a notice I put on any post I make involving strategy: I suck at poker so take my advice with a grain of salt and in fact I shouldn't even be posting here but sometimes I do.
 
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Goggelheimer

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If you called preflop in position to setmine, and the preflop raiser bet, then its fine to just call, because often he will continue betting the later streets. Also if you raise, you cant represent any draws, so your hand looks pretty much like, what it is. But if it checks to you, you should definitely look to bet most of the time. You can occationally check back :ks4::kh4: on :kd4::8c4::2s4:, because you block top pair. But if you have :8h4::8d4: or :2h4::2d4:, its a significant mistake to not bet for value. As others have said, you dont need to bomb the pot, but a bet of at least 30-40% pot needs to go in.

Taking this quoted example a bit more into GTO, I made a little sim with 40 BB Ranges for both UTG+1 vs. BU and this flop in an MTT scenario.

The solver gives this equilibrium result for an MTT scenario (seemed to be an easy decision, ready in less than a minute)

UTG1 vs BU 40 BB Flop strategy MTT

Here the solver likes to check back the sets with at least 50% of the time (lowest set), the rest of the time is bet with 1/3 pot.

In cash game setups the solver takes another approach on the check of the OOP-player, see picture below.
The solver as IP-player likes to bet (1/3 pot) all nutted hand with a high frequency.

Cashgame UTG1 vs BU

So as mostly in poker it depends on the situation if you bet here, this means also that you have to consider the tendencies of your villain.
 
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fundiver199

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If we called preflop in an SRP and we have KK we made a mistake before we even got to see the K82r flop. ;)
This is of course true, but I meant all situations, where the opponent check to us, including when we were the preflop raiser :)
We should be almost always betting our sets when calling preflop IP on these boards when checked to.
Since we will only have 88 and 22 absolutely yes.
If we opened and the BB called, and it checks to us (Which it should) this is definitely a range bet board. I know it sucks when they fold but by checking to trap, we now either have to start checking back some of our weak hands which should be putting pressure 100% of the time with a range bet or become the "Oh, he checked he's got a set" guy.
This is only true, if we are playing against someone, who is thinking at this level. If the opponent is a random fish, we dont need to worry about being balanced, and checking back top set can be a great play against a maniac, who will see it as a green line to bomb the turn with whatever, he has.
 
S3mper

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This is only true, if we are playing against someone, who is thinking at this level. If the opponent is a random fish, we dont need to worry about being balanced, and checking back top set can be a great play against a maniac, who will see it as a green line to bomb the turn with whatever, he has.
Sure, if there's a specific player, we're targeting deviate away, but I might argue that a maniac fish will see a 33% range bet as just as weak as a check back and is just as likely to fire into a now larger pot on the turn (If not raise on the flop) when we bet as they would if we checked.

Maybe we win less from the absolute bottom of that players range, but we probably make up for it by having them bomb into an 8bb pot vs a 5bb pot (Or larger in raise scenarios)
 
hardongear

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For me depends a lot on villain.....plus keeping in mind usually my flop C-bet % is always over 95%. Sometimes I need to bring that C-bet % down just a hair to around 80-85%. I do this by slow playing sets and strong hands on dry boards against aggressive villains who I know will bet when I check. Can't miss value when you know villain will bet for you when you check the flop. Best part is a lot of villains will bet more then the 1/3 of the pot I would have bet on the flop. So in the end I actually get a bit better value. A lot of villains when I check will bet 1/2 the pot or pot in attempt to steal/bluff.

If I don't feel villain is aggressive enough and will bet when I check the flop then I lead with a 1/3 pot bet.

Cheers!!!
 
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