Isolating players pre-flop
The importance of isolation pre-flop should
never be underestimated. Whether you have a weak
hand or an extremely strong hand you want to be
able to focus on one opponent whenever possible.
I have often heard players say they don't want
to "scare anyone away" when they have big hands
like AA or KK. If you take a step back you will
see why this type of thinking will destroy you.
Why you need to isolate
Running with the AA example, say you are in
late position with a few limpers ahead of you.
The best move would be to make a raise large
enough that you can narrow down the field but
small enough that you extract value from weaker
hands, which in this case is every hand. Why not
just make a min raise? At the surface a small
raise might seem optimal; you keep everyone in
the hand while in a dominant position. The
ability to reach beneath the surface, however,
is what separates the winners and losers.
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An example
You are dealt AA and have a few limpers ahead
of you.
You make a tiny raise and get called by two
players.
Stop there, now you have a mess on your
hands. Since you made such a small raise it is
hard to put players on a reasonable range. We
will play the rest of the hand out to see why
the small raise hurts you.
The flop comes 8s 10s Qc.
The first player leads out, the other player
flat calls, and you are left to act. You can’t
raise and expect to get much value out of your
hand on later streets or get a worse hand all in
on the flop very often so you are forced to
call.
The turn comes Kc.
The player first to act checks, the next
player makes a moderately large bet. What do you
do? They called the flop and now lead the turn.
What worse hands would have done that? Not many.
You feel obligated to call but there are not
many hands that you can reasonably beat and few
that you can catch up to on the river. QK and AJ
are definitely possibilities for your opponent.
What would have happened had you isolated
your opponent pre-flop
You can see why a small pre-flop raise will
often put you in tough spots later on. Had you
made a larger raise pre-flop and narrowed the
field down to one other player you not only
would have gotten more value from your hand
pre-flop but you could have played it more
effectively post-flop as well. If that same
player called a large raise pre-flop with QK or
AJ he would have been more prone to get it all
in on the flop when he made a pair or hit a
draw. Of course you can’t help the fact that the
turn would have hurt you, all you can do is get
your money in good and you will be a winner in
the long run.
