In tournament play, there is a particular concern among players that requires an adjustment from standard play. The concern is that when a player runs out of chips, they are out of the tournament for good. This causes a player to have two conflicting wants: trying to avoid going broke, and taking advantage of others who are trying to avoid going broke.

Since everyone else is avoiding going broke, it would follow that you should play looser than normal, to push some of these people around. In contrast, the fact that you're trying to avoid going broke indicates that you should be more careful than normal.

And thus the "gap" is born. The gap is the difference between the perceived strength of a raiser and the strength of a potential caller. Because people are so concerned with losing all of their chips, a raiser is generally given more credit than in a cash game. The idea is that a raiser has a range of hands that he's announcing as strong, and with his show of strength, he is also announcing that he will likely maintain the initiative on the later betting rounds. For these reasons, it follows that one who is trying to conserve chips should tread more carefully than if no such person has announced themselves.

Especially when playing limit Hold 'Em, this gap between "what you would raise with" and "what you should call a raise with," can be quite large. To push people around, your standards for raising can go quite low; but to conserve chips, your standards for calling a raise should be quite high.

For instance, in a limit Hold "em tournament, you should probably raise in middle position with something like:

or

after several people have folded to you. However, you would fold these same hands, in the same position, if someone else has beat you to the punch by raising themselves - in fact, with a previous raiser present, it might be correct to fold even better hands such as:

or

That being said, I think all this talk about the gap concept is a little silly these days. For one thing, everything that the gap concept implies has already been discussed, in any pre-flop chapter, of any book, that any player, has ever read. Now, it just has a new name to group these ideas together. What we're really talking about is utilizing "first-in vigorish - which, quite frankly, is a term that I think sounds much cooler, in that mobster type way, than the term "gap concept".

For another thing, this advice is nothing new. I remember the very first poker book that I ever read discussed how you needed a better hand to call a raise than to raise yourself.

But this is where I find that it gets silly - Sklansky himself, in his excellent tournament treatise, described the gap as being nonexistent in many situations. Namely, those situations where people have a lot of chips (for they no longer fear going broke), and those situations where your opponents are aware of the gap concept. This is to say that if your opponents are playing according to the gap concept, then they will be raising with hands much farther down than their normal standards - which means you can ignore the concept, and proceed to call raises with more inferior hands than those you would call with against a player not aware of it.

Also, the gap concept doesn't apply in no-limit when you play better than your opponent. That is to say you can call with far inferior hands, pre-flop, if your post-flop skills will allow you to outplay your opponents on the later betting rounds. The implied odds of potentially cracking a whole stack can more than make up for the fact that you started the hand behind.

The gap concept just isn't saying anything new, and with the explosion of no-limit in today's tournament scene, the gap concept simply doesn't apply as often as it seems it should. As always, you should play the player - that's what it's always about in Hold 'Em. If you're playing against a super tight raiser, than Poker 101 already tells you to fold all but your monsters. If you're playing against a super-loose raiser, than Poker 101 also tells you to widen your range.

When playing no-limit, the gap concept mainly applies during prize implication scenarios, such as on the bubble or close to the final table. The gap is also present when you or your opponent are short-stacked. The basic premise is that the tighter the table is playing pre-flop, the more you should raise and the more you should fold to a raiser - and as a corollary, the more careful you should play post-flop.

For instance, if the blinds are $100 - $200 (no ante) and you have only $900 in chips, the gap is extremely large. If you are the first one in, especially if several players have folded to you, you should actually be willing to push all-in with quite horrible hands, such as:

or

However, if a typical early position player has already raised, you should probably fold:

or

Even though you're quite desperate for chips, the fact that someone else has already shown strength makes your winning chances somewhat slim. However, as the first player in, the chance that everyone will fold behind you is just too great to pass up. It's important to use your first- in vig while you have it though; once you're down to about $500 - $600 (in the previous example), it's almost guaranteed that you'll get a caller, if only to get rid of you.

The gap concept is also prevalent during tournament payout situations, where a player can make more money with a good hand simply by sitting out and watching other players battle. There are in fact final table situations where it would be correct to fold AA. However, people generally take this idea too far, too soon in a tournament - such a situation would not arise unless several players contested a pot very, very deep into the prize structure.

To conclude, the gap concept is important at certain stages of a tournament, namely the middle and later stages where players don't have a lot of chips. However, since most players are aware of the concept these days, and because most of us are playing no-limit, it just doesn't apply all that often. Make sure you don't overdo it - play the player, and not just the cards.

Sam @ Power Poker Course.




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