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Play the Situation: Isolating Players
Play the Situation: Isolating Players
By Rich Sudy
As players begin to make their transformation from beginner to intermediate, they are somewhat familiar with the value of their hands as it relates to expected value. Some hands are long term winners, while other remain chip bleeders for all but the best players. For some the answer is to avoid playing certain hands. For others, the answer is to learn when and how to correctly play these same hands. The purpose of this article is to show how hands change value relative to that of the probable range of hands of another player. One way to get value out of some of the more marginal hands you hold, is by using their relative value to isolate bad players who enter pots with weak hands. If you knew, for example a player held king-seven offsuit, then it would be easy to recognize that a hand with an expected negative value like ace-eight offsuit just became a monster holding if you can get this hand heads up.
Of course, poker is a game of partial information, and knowing exactly what your opponent has pre-flop before he acts is simply not possible. However, once you get to see the types of hands they tend to limp or raise with, you should be able to make an approximation as to the range of hands they play. The larger the range, the more your marginal hands move up in value. By simply recognizing how your opponents play, you can turn some additional long term profit with marginal hands.
Assign Relative Values to Your Hands Preflop
At some point in your pre-flop education, you may have learned to throw away ace-jack off-suit to a pre-flop raiser. Now you need to learn how to three-bet it, and hands like it and less. If the pre-flop raiser is a tight, position sensitive player who is raising in early position, then folding this hand is a no-brainer. But what if it were an overly aggressive, loose player, or a possible late position steal raise?
It is important to understand that this player's range of hands to open raise with can only go down from that of a tight player in early position. In other words, know your players range.
Does ace-jack now have some value? Let's continue to look. How many players are still left to act? Are they tight players that will get out of your way? Does your hand stand to be significantly better than that of your loose opponent? If you can get this player heads up, you need to three bet. While ace-jack offsuit has very little absolute value to a raise from a tight player in early position, it's relative value has gone from -EV to +EV simply because it stands to be better than the average hand of a bad player or a steal raise.
Many players make the mistake of just calling. By doing this you are allowing others to come in, thus giving up your edge over a weaker player post flop. By possibly allowing a third or fourth person in you are lowering your chances of a bluff or having your hand hold up unimproved. The only plus side is winning a bigger pot should you hit, but remember we're talking about coming in with marginal values. Letting others in with better hands when they would have folded can easily cost you a pot. By protecting your hand pre-flop, you maintain the value of your hand and your playing edge over your opponent post-flop In order to consider how low you want to take your hands when isolating pre-flop, you need to consider how your opponent plays post flop.
Relative Value Post-Flop
If your opponents fold easily, the relative value of any hand goes up. In other words, a pair of aces will win the same as seven-six if your opponent misses the flop. Therefore, you should be raising a larger range of hands in situations where you are likely to get heads up with such an opponent.
Just make sure you don't overdo this. Not only will the player you are trying to isolate start to catch on, but so will some of the other players at the table. They will start adjusting and ruin this play for you. Incidentally, you also should start adjusting your play if you recognize someone making these moves.
If your opponents are passive post-flop, but don't fold easily, then relative value needs to come down to what you have observed is above the average hand your opponent will come in with. You need a hand that has some showdown value. Remember, you are trying to take advantage of your opponents mistakes of playing bad cards and going to far with them by simply having a slightly better hand. You will also be taking advantage of their mistake of not charging you the maximum when they do hit a hand. As a point of fact, most passive players only get value from their hands due to more aggressive players value betting, value raising, and bluffing into them. Allow for these conditions before attempting to isolate with a hand that can't be taken to showdown.
If your opponent plays aggressively post flop, bluffs often, and doesn't fold, then your relative value also needs to come down to where you believe your opponents range of average opening hands will be. After the flop you will be best off allowing them to take control of the hand. Here, more often than other times, you need only a hand that can beat a bluff. Remember that in order to counter this player, you are taking advantage of his aggressive tendencies, but you don't want them to make any more than the minimum off of you should they catch a hand. Charging them the maximum when you hit is simply a matter of playing back at them. Just make sure they don't make good folds to you. Even aggressive players will learn to respect someone who challenges them. Your money comes from them overplaying their hands, good or not. Don't allow them to make money off you by going to war with them on a weak hand or by allowing them to make good folds.
Relative Value on the River
The concept of relative value is most easily illustrated on the river. The player sitting next to you bluffs at a calling station with ace-jack unimproved. The calling station calls, as he has the past 50 hands, and he wins with a pair of treys. The player can't understand how this guy can call. Meanwhile, had this player checked his ace-jack, he likely would have had it checked behind, and still been good a small percentage of the time without investing any chips.
Fast forward. The same player sitting next to you has a pair of kings. On the river a possible flush card comes out. The same calling station checks, and the player with kings checks behind. He wins the pot, but wonders out loud: "How could I bet with the flush out there. I never know what this guy has." If our hero had assigned a relative value to his hand, he would see that in the first hand, a bluff has a negative expectation, while in the second hand a value bet has a positive expectation. A common mistake for players is to invest their chips in low percentage plays like bluffing callers with nothing but a hand that can beat only a small range of hands. At the same time, they don't invest any chips in high percentage plays like value betting the same callers with a marginal or better hand that can still beat a fairly wide range of this players possible holdings.
If you want to maximize your profits, you are going to have to correctly adjust your standards to fit the situation. By simply assigning absolute values to your hands, and assuming your opponent is as reasonable as you are, you are giving them the ability to beat you by passing on profitable situations. By playing strong, you open up a window of opportunity that many players pass by. I see players still folding hands like ace-queen offsuit to a raise in the wrong situation simply because they want to stay out of trouble with it. They have made the mistake of assigning an absolute value to the hand rather than considering it's relative value to the approximate range of hands of the initial raiser.
If the original raiser has a range that consists of jacks through aces and ace-king, then it's a good fold. If their range of raising hands is any two suited through aces, then they are passing up all kinds of opportunity.
In this day and age of poker, TV has had the biggest impact on how people play. They like being aggressive, wearing hats and shades, and most of all they enjoy playing. Take advantage of this, but don't embarrass them into playing better or leaving. The opportunity is out there more than ever. Take advantage of it.
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