Thursday, March 19, 2009

The reverse gap principle...

The "reverse gap" is a move I especially enjoy since it is so counter-intuitive to do if you come from a NLHE world. In the NLHE world, if someone in front of you raises, and you are the next to act, the gap principle kicks in. Meaning you should tighten your range of hands (the gap) with which you would call or raise with. In the limit world, if someone raises ahead of you and you are the next to act, you can and should loosen a bit and think about a re-raise. The idea being, the people behind the raiser are looking at one raise to call, but may still call with those baby connector hands or sooooted junk. If they now have to look at three bets, they are more likely to fold. This is a chance to not only eliminate the field, but also read hands, since a cold call behind you is likely to be suited connectors, and the original raiser re-popping you is likely to be strong.

The big advantage here is you can isolate on the original raiser and try to get the field limited. I think it's correct to do with even group two or three hands in order to get a better feel for the hand and to reduce opponents.

Of course, I could be wrong...

4 comments:

  1. Interesting thought I usually don't re-raise unless I have AA, KK, or AK. Maybe I need to loosen up there too. I've been playing mostily .25/.50 on FTP also, so I'll be following your blog closely. Hopefully it will help me with my game.

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  2. Thanks, Dave. I'm playing under ylee21 if you see me on the table sometimes.

    The other key to this play is that you can't have too many people limped in ahead of the raiser, if there is too much in the pot already and too many limpers all it would take is one limper to call and it could turn into a pot with too many players.

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  3. I think I'll give that a try next time I play. I'm gagedl on FT.

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  4. A couple of nights ago I had the opportunity to try this twice in the same session. Both times it worked to isolate the original raiser. The first time I won a big pot with AQo beating his AKo. The next time I had AJo and missed the flop and turn, giving it up on the turn. Both times original raiser cbet on flop and bet turn. The problem I see with this move is you will be behind the orginal raiser most of the time and are hoping to out flop him or bluff him out of the hand. Is this the way you see it? And if so is it +ev to make this move.

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