The Gap Concept?

[Bones920]

Can anyone help me understand this?

[sin808]

You need a better hand to call a raise with than you do to raise yourself.

[M50Paul]

I had the same post a few weeks ago. You can find it by either searching on my name or the topic. I have a hard time with getting my arms around the details of executing the concept. I did read Holdem Tournament for Advanced players but.... no real help. I am now just reading Harrington's book on NL Tournaments. If you are relatively new likie myself it's one of those topics that is so broad and vague that you just have to keep poking at it til the light comes on. It suggests you need to understand what you oppenent has for betting, calling, and raising requirements.

[pecto]

Example: You are UTG+1 with AJo and u raise, but if you are CO with the same hand and someone raises from UTG+1 u fold

[Mammux]

I've seen it phrased like this:

If you're in late position, to call a raise from middle position, you need a hand that you would open raise with in early position.

In reality, it's not that simple. Your greatest fear is domination, so frequently dominated hands like KQ, KJ, QJ will fall a lot in value, while TT, JJ don't lose as much value since the high pairs are not as common as AK, AQ, AJ.
The low pairs that you play for set value hardly lose value at all.

-Magnus

[smudgex68]

It's the mistaken concept that beige chino trousers (or any other colour) with PLEATS is in any way, shape or form, acceptable dress for someone under 60 years of age.

[Siingo]

And here is an exampel why you shall not call with some hands that you raise with:

Lets say that you play holdem and you know that the one you play against only raise with JJ-AA (just to make this simple) and you do the same. If it is your turn and he has not raised and you get JJ then you raise. But if he has raised then you shall fold with QQ. You do this because if he has not raised then you know that JJ is better than his hand (we ignore AK, AQ and so on to make this simple). But if he raise then you shall fold QQ because in average he will have something betwin QQ and KK. This mean that he will have a better hand than your QQ more than 50% of the time when he has raised. That mean that you shall only call( re-raise ) with KK or better.

[fnord_too]

Here's the deal with the Gap Concept:

When someone raises, their average hand has jumped up considerably above random, so you really want a hand better than their average raising hand to call. (Ok, there are other considerations, most notably implied odds, but that is the main tenet of the concept.)

Lets take an extreme example: You know UTG will only raise with AK, AQs, TT-AA. You have JJ in MP, UTG raises, all fold to you. JJ is a big favorite against a random hand, and against 4 or 5 random hands left to act, it is still worth a lot. (Though against several random hands you are a dog to win the pot, you are still +EV, and most crap hands will fold so it is unlikely you will be up against seceral random hands). Back to the situation. Let's consider what UTG could have:

AK - 16 ways
AQs - 4 ways
TT - 6 Ways
JJ - 1 Way
QQ-AA (collective) 18 ways


Now you are looking at 18 ways to be a 9:2 dog, 20 ways to be about an 11:9 favorite, 6 ways to be a 9:2 favorite, and 1 way to be even. If I did the math right, that makes you about a 1.15:1 (slightly better than 7:6) dog to win the hand (assuming it is just you and UTG in the hand). So now your normally powerhouse hand is an underdog to the UTG raiser. If you adjust UTG's raising standards, your chances change. If you are say in a NL tourney with deep stacks compared to the raise, you may be able to play this for set value, and your chances of winning the hand will be much more clear after the flop. (You know for instance a K or A hitting the flop kills you if you don't hit your set. If the flop comes T high though, you may be put to a difficult test.)

(This whole description was really geared towards NL tournies. The gap concept is also present in all of poker, but the mechanics of its impact differ depending on game and structure.)

[Sarge85]

Very well said Fnord.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[sabre170]

A point often missed about the Gap Concept is that it is defined recursively. You need a better hand to call than to open-raise, unless your opponent is familiar with the Gap Concept.