Texas Holdem Guide To the Gap Concept
The gap concept states that simply that it takes a stronger hand to call a raise than it does to make a raise. Introduced by renowned poker author David Sklansky, the gap becomes wider when facing a raise from a tight player, compared to becoming smaller against a loose player.
The gap concept works by the initial raiser giving of a range of hands they could be making the raise with. The tighter the player is the stronger the cards will be in this range. This subsequently leads to there being a larger gap between the hands the raiser will raise with and the hands the opponents will think about calling with. When the player is looser the effect is reversed. Due to the player open raising with a wider range of hands the opponent should be calling with a wider range of hands, consequently closing the gap.
Let’s have a look at an example of the gap concept. In this example you hold AJ off suit in middle position. A raise has occurred from a player sitting under the gun. Now a raise utg (under the gun)usually will show more strength than a late position raise due to the opponent raising knowing that there are more players left to act behind them. Straight away by raising they are stating that they think they have a stronger hand than anyone else sat at the table. When I face an utg raise, I will narrow there range to extremely strong hands like JJ+, AK, AQ. This does depend on the opponent’s aggressiveness but this is just a general range. This range has our hand dominated and therefore means we should fold our hand.
Let’s say our opponent didn’t raise, I would certainly recommend a raise to open the pot. This is because no one has shown strength yet, there are fewer opponents behind us to act and we can use the gap concept to our advantage. Players left to act behind us will fear we have a strong hand, our raise has shown strength, and will need a good hand to call our raise.