Poker Bet Sizing in 2026: Flop, Turn and River Texture Guide

Bet sizing in 2026 is less about memorising one “standard” c-bet and more about choosing a size that fits the board texture, your range’s leverage, and the story you can tell on later streets. Most players now see sizing as a plan: you pick a flop size that keeps the right hands in, sets up turn barrels, and leaves you sensible river options. This article breaks down practical, street-by-street sizing rules for flop, turn and river across common textures, with concrete sizes you can apply immediately.

Flop sizing in 2026: start with range leverage, not habit

The first question on the flop is: do you want to bet your range frequently, or do you want to bet a narrower, stronger slice? On many high-card, relatively dry boards (for example K-7-2 rainbow or A-8-3 rainbow), the in-position preflop raiser often has a clear range advantage. In these spots, small c-bets around 20–33% pot are doing a lot of work: they deny equity to overcards, keep worse hands in, and let you realise your positional advantage without bloating the pot with your entire range.

When the flop is “wet” (connected, two-tone, lots of straight and flush possibilities), the logic flips. You’re not just taking a cheap stab; you’re often building a pot with hands that can handle pressure and forcing weaker, draw-heavy holdings to pay. Sizes around 50–75% pot become more common on boards like J-9-8 with a flush draw, or T-8-6 two-tone, because the caller’s range contains many hands with decent equity that you’d rather charge.

Stack depth (SPR) is the hidden knob behind many good sizing decisions. With deeper stacks, you can use smaller flop sizes more often because you have room to apply pressure later; with low SPR, you may need to size up earlier to set up a natural turn shove or a clean two-street line. As a quick anchor: with SPR ~3–5, a 50–66% flop bet often sets up straightforward turns; with SPR ~8–12, 25–33% bets keep the tree flexible and protect your checking range.

Flop textures: three simple buckets and the sizes that fit

Dry and static boards (A-7-2 rainbow, K-9-3 rainbow, Q-6-2 rainbow): default towards 20–33% pot with a high frequency, especially in position. These boards don’t change dramatically on many turns, so you can keep bluffs cheap and still realise value on later streets. Small bets also allow you to check back more medium-strength hands without your checking range becoming too weak.

Paired boards (K-K-5, 9-9-4, A-A-8): small bets (20–30%) are usually strong because the caller’s range struggles to connect cleanly. Bigger sizes can still appear, but they are typically more polar and more opponent-dependent. If your opponent overfolds to aggression on paired boards, a bigger bet can print; if they’re sticky, the small sizing keeps their dominated hands in and lets you value-bet thinner later.

Wet and dynamic boards (J-T-8 two-tone, 9-7-6 two-tone, Q-J-9): move towards 50–75% pot with a tighter betting range. You’re buying fold equity plus denying equity, and you’re also setting up turn sizes that keep pressure on draws. If you insist on betting small on these boards, you must accept that you’re often giving a good price and will face more turn floats and raises.

Turn sizing: react to equity shifts and set up the river

On the turn, your main job is to recognise when the board changes who owns the nut advantage. A turn card like an Ace on a low flop (6-5-2 → A) often boosts the preflop raiser’s top-end, while a turn that completes obvious draws or brings a high connector can swing leverage towards the caller. Your turn size should reflect whether you’re pressing an advantage (bigger) or protecting a capped range / controlling the pot (smaller or check).

In 2026, you’ll see a lot of “scale-up” lines: small flop bet, then bigger turn bet. This makes sense when the flop bet was mainly about range c-betting and keeping the pot manageable, but the turn introduces cards that increase polarisation. A typical pattern is 25–33% pot on the flop, then 66–100% pot on the turn on cards that increase your value region and improve your strongest bluffs (for example, adding big draws or strong blockers).

Turn sizing is also where you should be honest about your plan versus different opponent types. Against players who call too wide on the flop, a bigger turn bet punishes their “one-and-done” floats. Against strong opponents who raise turns aggressively, you may need to protect your checking range by checking more hands that can withstand bets, and by using smaller bets with hands that want thin value rather than maximum pressure.

Turn playbook: when to go big, when to keep it controlled

Big turn bets (66–125% pot) fit when ranges are polarising and you can represent strong value credibly. Classic examples: you c-bet small on K-7-2 rainbow, get called, and the turn is a 9 bringing a backdoor flush draw. Now your strongest hands (two pair, sets, top pair strong kicker) want to build, and your best bluffs gain equity or blockers. Overbets (100–125%) are most useful when you have nut advantage and the caller is capped to mostly one-pair hands.

Medium turn bets (45–70% pot) fit when you want to charge draws but you’re not fully polar. Think of boards where both players have plenty of decent hands: you raise preflop, bet 50% on J-9-4 two-tone, get called, and the turn is a 2 brick. A medium size keeps pressure on draws and worse pairs, while not forcing you into an all-in river with hands that aren’t thrilled to stack off.

Checks and small turn bets (20–40% pot) fit when the turn card hits the caller’s range hard or completes many draws. If the turn completes the most obvious straight or flush, a small “block” sizing can sometimes protect marginal value hands and allow cheaper realisation, but it must be used carefully: good opponents will raise it often. When in doubt on scary turns, checking more is frequently the higher-quality decision, especially out of position, because it keeps your range less face-up and avoids paying off with hands that have shrunk in value.

River sizing: polarisation, blockers, and making your bet credible

By the river, sizing is mostly about polarisation: you’re either value-betting a hand that is happy to play for a bigger chunk of the pot, or you’re bluffing with a hand that has the right blockers and story. The common 2026 mistake is using “comfortable” river sizes with uncomfortable hands. If you’re betting river for thin value, choose sizes that get called by worse; if you’re bluffing, choose sizes that make the opponent indifferent with their bluff-catchers, not sizes that simply look neat.

A practical way to decide river size is to start with your opponent’s likely bluff-catchers and ask: what size makes their decision hardest? Against a range that is heavy on one-pair hands, bigger sizes (75–125% pot) apply maximum pressure. Against a range that contains many missed draws and weak pairs, smaller value bets (25–50% pot) can extract more because those hands will fold to a large bet but may pay off a smaller one.

Blockers matter more on the river than anywhere else. If you’re bluffing, you want to block the hands that would call and unblock the hands that would fold. If you’re value-betting, you often want to block folds and unblock calls. This is why many strong players choose very specific hands for big river bets: not because the hand “feels like a bluff”, but because it interacts with the opponent’s calling range in a way that makes the bet profitable.

River sizing checklist: choose a size your range can support

Small river bets (25–50% pot) are best for thin value and for situations where your range is not heavily polar. They work well when your opponent has a lot of second-best hands that can’t stand a big bet but will convince themselves to call a smaller one (for example, second pair that blocks missed draws). Small bets can also be used as a selective bluff size when you expect the opponent to overfold to any aggression, but this should be based on evidence, not hope.

Big bets and overbets (75–150% pot) are for polar ranges: strong value and well-chosen bluffs. If the runout is such that you can credibly represent the nuts, and the opponent is capped to bluff-catchers, these sizes force tough folds. A good example is when the river completes a draw that you can have in your range more often than your opponent, and your bluff candidates block the strongest calls (for instance, holding a key card that reduces the opponent’s nut region).

All-in sizing is not automatically the “maximum pressure” option if it doesn’t fit your earlier line. A river shove that is wildly out of proportion to the pot can look suspicious and gets snapped by the part of the range you wanted to fold, while folding out the hands that would have called a sensible 75–100% bet. Before you jam, sanity-check whether your value hands would also choose this sizing. If the answer is “not really”, you’re probably forcing a story your range can’t tell.