Sizing schemes & board classes

Bet sizing taught that size carries information; this lesson organizes sizes into schemes — whole-flop plans where one class of boards takes small bets and another takes large ones, with the turn plan following from the choice. A published solver analysis of small-blind-versus-big-blind play (GTO Wizard, April 2026) maps the pattern cleanly, and its logic transfers to most single-raised pots:

  • Static, paired, or high-card boards → SMALL bets. On a board like a pair-plus-middle-card texture, your value hands' equity is nearly LOCKED UP — the top of your range wins almost always when called. Extra fold equity is worth little because the hands folding were drawing nearly dead anyway. A quarter-to-third-pot bet folds out the trash cheaply while letting your whole range bet without polarizing.
  • Nut-advantage boards with vulnerable value → LARGE bets. On middling, connected boards where you own far more overpairs and strong top pairs than the caller does, your value is real but NOT locked up — even an overpair fears overcards. Now big sizes buy fold equity on exactly the hands with live equity against you, and the size sets up low-SPR turns where your value can play for stacks without agonizing.
  • Bluff selection inside the scheme. Two questions from the same analysis: does the board leave many no-pair-no-draw hands (then some bluffs must come from those), and what are the strongest draws (bluff hands that BLOCK them while carrying an overcard). Bluffing random air wastes the scheme's coherence; blocking the nuts-draws makes callers arrive at the bottom of their ranges more often.
  • The turn follows the flop size. After a SMALL flop bet, ranges stay wide and stacks deep relative to pot — checking dominates turns. After a LARGE one, the range is already polarized and the SPR already low — continued aggression dominates, with shoves arriving on draw-completing cards and slower sizing on statics.
  1. Name your value region.Which of your hands genuinely want calls, and how locked-up is their equity?
  2. Check the nut advantage.Who owns more of the strongest combos? Big schemes need it.
  3. Price the extra folds.Large sizes earn only if folded equity was live against your value hands.
  4. Commit to the follow-up.Choose the turn plan now — small schemes check more; large schemes barrel.

Worked example: two boards, two schemes

Jack-jack-nine rainbow: your overpairs are close to unbeatable when called, so a tiny bet collects folds from the unpaired majority at minimum risk — the published analysis puts the solver's preferred sizing under 30% pot here. Nine-seven-three rainbow: your value (overpairs, nines) faces four overcards each and you own ~9% of the effective nuts to their ~2%, so the analysis finds over-full-pot betting — every fold purchased has live equity against you, which is exactly what makes buying it worthwhile. Same position, same stack, opposite schemes — the equity distribution picked them, not a style preference.