The Gap Concept & Playing Easily Dominated Hands

It’s been a matter of study for many a professional player that there’s a common failing between both intermediate and advanced players when they fall into the trap of playing easily dominated hands in Texas Hold’em.

When it comes to Poker, sometimes less is more, and when it comes to tournament Poker, sometimes it’s wise not to let your eagerness for aggressive “domination” go forward. Even though that one Hold’em starter may look as tempting as a Baywatch Babe you’d be wise to learn the difference between a good starting hand, and one that’s just calling for a folding even when you find yourself suited to the occasion.

So when faced with one of those hands where you clearly see the domination potential and there’s another player whose entered the pot with his own will, then you know you have a call for a pre-flop folding. Why, you ask ? In two words the “Gap Concept” defined by David Sklansky as being “the difference between the hand you need to call an opener with, and that with which you would have opened yourself”.

For those of you that want that in plain english, it’s simply the observation that you need a stronger hand to call a raise with, than you would have needed to make the original opening bet.

Filling The Gap

First of all, you should take into consideration whether you’re the opener act or not. If you don’t have the first act, then you must make a note of the following. Has a raise happened in front of your eyes? If the answer be positive, then this “Gap Concept” advices you to move onto labeling the raiser (so to speak) as one type of player or another, whether he be the “loose” or the “tight” type.

Also, if you do have the opener act, take a good long look at your opponents stack size in order to resolve whether the concept may or may not be applied here.

POT BEEN RAISED: If the pot has indeed been raised PRIOR to it getting to you, then it is of capital importance that you understand the mindset and position from which the players are raising.

AGGRESIVE: Talking about aggression, if the player is the loose-warrior type, you could consider the gap as good as gone (most times, though not always) of the hands you can get a re-raise or a call from, since there will be an amplified range of hands for the player to raise with, thus leaving you a wide range of hands to counter attack. In this case, you may like to play a King-Jack hand against this kind of adversary.

TIGHT: Forget about King-Jack when facing a tight player. For in this case the gap has become even smaller, and you may find yourself narrowing the gap to the point of folding all but those premium hands (kings, aces, queens) your opponent is most likely to be raising with from a primal stance.

Playing Your Odds

Example 1
Let’s say you got a K-Q off suit on the button. You raise. It looks like a good hand for stealing blinds, sure… But… should a middle player have a raise PRIOR to the flop, you better throw that K-Q is as far away from you as possible, as it is easily dominated by the hands your rival is most likely to raise with from his middle stance.

Example 2
You adversary has a raise in the first stance with A-K, which folds at you on button with 7-2 off-suit (a hand doesn’t get any worse than that, or does it?). Calling there would get you like a 65-35 out of game.

Now, suppose you’ve got A-Q on button, against that very same A-K raise. Your hand would be now around 75-25 out, which is actually even worse than with 2-7.

The point is that it’s very difficult to fold A-Q to a single pre-flop, but should that raise have come form an early stance and you reasonably suspect your opponent to have a premium hand, A-Q would certainly become effortlessly dominated.

Final Words

So it goes to say that when it comes to pre-flop strategies it’s a good policy to hold your horses and retain yourself from playing easily dominated hands. You should never be confident from being suited, since a hand doesn’t become playable just because it’s suited; it’s the ranks of the cards that matters and many times suited hands can often be mediocre making them best left alone.