Rainbow Flop
When the flop comes with three different suits, it is called a rainbow flop. You may hear the tournament director call out a flop: “King, Ten, Four, Rainbow.” This means the K104 were of different suits and the odds of a flush are greatly diminished. To make a flush after a rainbow flop, you must be holding two of the same suit in your hand and one of the three rainbow cards must match your suit and the both the turn and the river must be that suit.
So the key to a rainbow is the greatly reduced changes of a flush and therefore the likelihood that anyone who had played suited cards will fold to a post-flop bet.
Sometimes you may hear the term: “Connected Flop” this refers both to a flop that has two or three of one suit and to flops that also could develop into straight. So a KQJ flop would be “connected” no matter what the suits may be. Conversely, J62 rainbow is a unconnected flop. Rainbow flops and unconnected flops can often be won with a strong continuation bet.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #128
