Mind the gap

You need a better hand to call a raise than to make a raise. It’s one of those aphorisms you often hear at the poker table, and one many players simply take for granted. But this saying actually paraphrases an important piece of poker theory known as ‘the Gap Concept’ – a term coined by poker writer David Sklansky – and it’s an idea that deserves more than just lip service.

It’s especially crucial in tournaments, where survival is paramount and you can’t reach back into your pocket to replenish your stack. In the next couple of articles, I’m going to discuss the ideas behind the Gap Concept, how to apply them, and the advantages and disadvantages of the concept. I’ll show you when to use it, when not to use it and, perhaps most importantly, how to take advantage of people who overuse it.

WHAT IS THE GAP?

In his excellent book Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, Sklansky defines the ‘gap’ as being ‘the difference between the hand you need to call an opener with, and that with which you would open yourself’. He goes on to explain that ‘how wide the gap is depends on how tight your opponents play. If your opponents are quite loose, there may be no gap at all. In a tournament, this gap is often extremely high.

In other words, in a tournament it is often right to open-raise with hands far inferior to those with which you would need to call someone else who open-raised’. As Sklansky would have it, the underlying principle behind all this is that you should ‘avoid confrontation with those who have already shown strength, and take advantage of those who are trying to preserve their chips’.

He also notes that there is one important exception to the Gap Concept: if the players behind you have either a very small or very large stack, in which case loosening up on your normal opening requirements may be unwise.

So what exactly does Sklansky mean when he talks about the Gap Concept? Let’s look at it from a basic, beginner’s perspective. When we look at our cards, our actions are solely determined by the strength of our hand. We do not consider our opponents, their actions, or the likelihood of the actions of players left to act. If we have a pair of tens, this is a good hand and we’re going to play it. It’s all we know how to do.

The Gap Concept is an extension of this basic strategy in that it takes into account two distinct scenarios, both dependent upon whether you are first to act or not. If you are not first to act, the concept asks the question: has there been a raise in front of you? If there has been, it asks you to further classify the raiser as to what type of player they are.

Are they loose, tight, or somewhere in between? If you are first to act, you only need to look at the stack sizes of the players remaining to determine if you can apply the concept.

If the pot has been raised before it gets to you, understanding the tendencies of the player raising and from what position they are raising is important. If it is a very loose, aggressive player the ‘gap’ may be small or non-existent. The reason for this is simple: they have a wide range of hands that they will raise with, so the hands you can counterattack with are also wide. A hand like King-Jack can be playable against a player like this.

It’s a completely different situation, however, if a tight player has raised. The K-J that was playable against the loose- aggressive maniac is no longer playable. The player’s range is much smaller, so the gap (between your normal range of open-raising hands and your current range of calling hands) has widened. In fact, against certain players who are very tight and only raise with premium hands like Aces, Kings and Queens from early position, you can stretch the gap so far that you would fold all but those very same hands.

KEY POINT

The difference between the hand needed to call an opening bet with and the hand needed to open with is called the ‘gap’. The tighter your opponents play the bigger the gap, and the looser they play, the smaller the gap

GAP RAISING

However, when most people think of the Gap Concept, they do not think of raised pots and what hands they can call and re-raise with. They think of raising first to act with any two cards. This is what is known as ‘gap raising’ and if applied properly can be an extremely effective weapon in accumulating chips.

The key thing to know when applying this concept is the likelihood of the remaining players to fold to your raise. If the chances are that they will not fold, the range of hands you can open-raise with against them is small. If there is a high probability that they will fold when you raise, your opening range is expanded. In this instance, your hole cards do not, and should not, matter.

The most important thing to remember when applying the Gap Concept is that you must know your opponent’s tendencies in order to apply it correctly. If you just blindly fold a hand like A-J suited on the button because a player raised in early position, you are making a mistake.

If you raise every time you are first to act because that’s what you are supposed to do according to the Gap Concept, then you don’t really get it.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to observe your opponents and figure out whether they are tight or loose and what their calling tendencies are when their blinds are raised. If you do this, you will be able to properly apply the Gap Concept as outlined above. When you first sit down at a table, note how many times a player raises when they are first to act. If they do it too often, your gap against them is small. If they don’t raise often enough, your gap against them is larger.

Also, watch how often they call their blinds. In a way, this works in the opposite way to their raising frequency. If a player calls raises frequently, they have a loose calling range and your gap should be wide against them, meaning you should only raise them with stronger hands. However, if they frequently fold to raises, your gap should be small against them and you can raise their blinds liberally.

KEY POINT

The Gap Concept can also be used when considering an open-raise, but you must know the tendencies of the players behind you in order to apply it correctly