Postflop Trees

IkaSolver can build and solve trees that start from the flop, turn, or river. This is useful for studying specific postflop spots in depth - for example, analyzing a BTN vs BB single-raised pot on a particular board texture.

Setting Up a Postflop Tree

In the New Tree dialog, set the Starting Street to Flop, Turn, or River. This changes the dialog:

  • Blinds and antes are hidden - no blinds are posted in a postflop tree since the preflop action has already occurred.
  • Starting Pot replaces the blind fields - enter the total pot size at the start of the street (in chips).
  • Big Blind is still shown - it is used for display purposes only (EV is expressed in bb/100).
New Tree dialog with Starting Street set to Flop

After clicking Create, the Starting Ranges dialog appears so you can set the hand ranges each player arrives at this street with.

Board Card Selection

Before running a postflop solver, you need to select the community cards. The Board Card Picker appears in the lower-left panel, above the Table/Range/Strategy views.

Board Card Picker with flop cards selected
  • Click an empty slot (labeled F, T, or R) to open the card picker grid.
  • Click a card in the grid to place it. Already-used cards are dimmed.
  • The picker auto-advances to the next empty slot.
  • Click the x on a placed card to remove it, or use Clear to remove all board cards.

The number of required cards depends on the street:

  • Flop: 3 cards
  • Turn: 4 cards
  • River: 5 cards

The solver will not start until the required board cards are selected. The board card slots glow to indicate when cards are needed.

The Postflop Tab

The Postflop tab in the Tree Configuration dialog controls how postflop bet sizes are generated. Unlike the preflop Bet Sizing tab (which uses raise multipliers), postflop sizing is driven by SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) tables.

Tree Configuration dialog on the Postflop tab

Add Postflop

The Add postflop checkbox at the top controls whether postflop streets are included in the tree at all. If unchecked, the tree ends after preflop (showdown or fold). For postflop-starting trees, this should always be checked.

SPR-Based Bet Sizing Table

The core of postflop configuration is the Bet Sizes by SPR table. Each row defines a bet size that applies when the stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) falls within a given range:

ColumnMeaning
Min SPRMinimum SPR for this rule to apply (inclusive)
Max SPRMaximum SPR for this rule (use * for infinity)
Bet %Bet size as a percentage of the pot
FApply on the flop
TApply on the turn
RApply on the river
Raises >=Minimum number of raises in the current street before this size becomes available

SPR is the effective stack divided by the pot. A low SPR (e.g., 1-3) means stacks are shallow relative to the pot, so smaller bet sizes make sense. A high SPR means deeper stacks and room for larger bets.

The default configuration has two rows:

  1. SPR 0 to 3: 33% pot bet (all streets, 0 raises required)
  2. SPR 3+ to infinity: 100% pot bet (all streets, 0 raises required)

This means at shallow SPR, only a 33% pot bet is available. At deeper SPR, a full pot bet is used instead.

Use the Add button to create additional rows (e.g., add a 75% pot option for medium SPRs). Use Reset to restore defaults.

SPR table with multiple rows

All-In Options

All-In Options section with SPR and street toggles

The All-In Options section controls when an all-in bet becomes available postflop, based on SPR:

FieldMeaning
SPR <=All-in is available when SPR is at or below this threshold
F / T / RWhich streets the all-in applies to
Raises >=Minimum raises before all-in becomes an option

The default setup:

  1. SPR <= 3: All-in available on all streets (flop, turn, river), 0 raises required
  2. SPR <= 8: All-in available on turn and river only, 0 raises required

This means at shallow SPRs, players can shove on any street. At medium SPRs, the all-in is restricted to later streets where the pot has grown relative to stacks.

The Settings Tab

The Settings tab contains options that affect both preflop and postflop tree construction.

Tree Configuration dialog on the Settings tab

All-In Thresholds

  • Preflop all-in threshold (default: 45%) - When a player's raise would commit this percentage of their remaining stack, the raise is converted to an all-in. This prevents unrealistically small raises that leave almost no chips behind.
  • Postflop all-in threshold (default: 60%) - Same concept for postflop actions.

Max Calls and Limpers

  • Max calls vs raise (default: 0) - How many players can cold-call a raise. Set to 0 for raise-or-fold preflop trees (no flatting allowed). Set to 1 or 2 to allow cold-calling.
  • Max limpers (default: 0) - How many players can limp (call the big blind) before someone raises. Set to 0 for open-raise-only trees.

Toggle Options

OptionDefaultMeaning
Pot LimitOffCap all raises at the pot size (for pot-limit games)
Pot w/o anteOffCalculate pot percentages excluding the ante
Cold call 3betOffAllow players to flat-call a 3-bet (instead of only 4-bet or fold)
BackraiseOffAllow a player who already called to re-raise if action comes back to them
SB call vs limpOffAllow the small blind to just call when facing a limp (instead of raise-or-fold)
Add donksOnAllow out-of-position players to bet into the preflop aggressor (donk bets)

Fill All as Pot

The Fill All as Pot (100%) button sets every preflop sizing field to 100%. This is a shortcut for creating pot-limit style trees.

Tips

  • Keep SPR rows simple to control tree size. Two or three rows is usually sufficient. Each additional row creates more branches in the tree.
  • Use the Raises >= column to add re-raise sizes only after the initial bet. For example, a row with Raises >= 1 and Bet 100% creates a pot-sized raise option that only appears after someone has already bet.
  • Adjust all-in thresholds based on stack depth. At 100bb, the defaults work well. For shorter stacks, you might lower the thresholds.
  • Postflop trees are faster to solve than preflop trees because they have fewer decision nodes. A full 2-player postflop tree on a single board might have 10,000-50,000 nodes compared to millions for a full preflop tree.

Next Steps