The four colours

Each board gets one colour. The colour is not how pretty the hand looks; it is how often the hand wins that board against seven random hands by the river, rounded to something you can say in a second.

• Red. The nuts. A wrap with thirteen outs to the nut straight. Second nuts. A full house that is not the nuts. Red is enough on its own: you bet it into a quiet table from any seat, and you call a bet with it.
• Orange. A draw to the nuts with eight or nine outs. A flush that is not the nut flush. A made hand that only two or three hands beat. Orange needs something on the other board before you put money in.
• Yellow. A set that is not top set. A straight that is not the nut straight. A small draw to the nuts, four or five outs. Yellow helps an orange board; two yellows together are usually not enough.
• Grey. Two pair. One pair. Nothing. Any draw that is not to the nuts. Grey does not count, however good it feels.

Two pair is grey. That one costs people the most money, so sit with it: eight players, two boards, random cards; someone holds a set on your two-pair board a third of the time with four cards and half the time with five. Two pair that is not improving is a bluff-catcher at best.

Thirty boards today. Nine of ten right is the pass mark, and it will take you most of the week to get there. That is normal.