Isolation Raise

Well I recently left my old blog and wrote up an introduction for this new one. Right now its friday night and im not feeling too good so I have decided to not play. I have a fair bit of work to do but hopefully I can put some hours in at the table. When it comes to improving recently I have been focussing on my post flop play but have made a few small changes pre-flop in the last month. Although it is pre-flop where I feel I do best and this led me to write about the dynamics created by an isolation raise, see below. Enjoy :)

Part 1: Reacting to the isolation raise

When you sit down at a poker table you should try and categorise as many players as possible. It is the players’ tendencies that are going to impact your game play or at least they should be. These tendencies may become more apparent over time but keeping record of players can help you in this area. Having statistics on each player will certainly help you do this, although it is not necessary for everyone. I personally do not use them and the reason is I like to play creatively and take a more feel approach and sometimes statistics can cloud my judgement. This is just my personal preference and I recently took a personality test which showed that I rely on a feel approach in many situations. I believe each poker player should tune their game style to their abilities and their strengths. Although you have a style your game should still be changing as dynamics of the game change.

When I open up a table, I firstly look around to see if there are weak players and try and sit on their left. An interesting table dynamic that can arise is when a weak player open limps. If it is folded around to me I will open up my range to isolate this player by raising. My goal is to see a flop heads up against this player but if he folds I can collect the dead money which is just as good. When I raise in this situation I will raise 1 big blind bigger than my opening raise; this is because I want to discourage others from entering the pot if they have position on me. The reason I want to discourage others from entering the pot is my range is a little wider in this situation and I don’t want to get lots of callers who had a better price. The goal is to play against the weaker player but if I have good players behind me still left to act I will likely have to make my isolation raising range tighter.

If a weaker player limps in and a player to my right raises and I know they are capable of isolating I will 3-bet in this spot more often than I would do if the weaker player had not limped in. This is because I know the player who isolated has a wider range in this situation and if they are doing this regularly I will be more inclined to 3-bet wider. The frequency in which they isolate will have a strong correlation to how wide my 3-bet range is. In this scenario my range will consist of the typical range I normally 3-bet for value with and sometimes I will increase this slightly if I believe I can get value from worse hands. The other part to my range are hands with little value but which have some high card value e.g. K4s which means I can still make top pair or flop a flush draw when called.

Therefore when I know this player is likely to be isolating a weaker player I widen my range for 3-betting. Although I will widen my 3-bet range in this spot, this does not necessarily mean that I am increasing the number of hands that I raise for value. Rather, to ensure my range remains polarised. This means I appear aggressive with a wider range but the range I will be stacking off with is still the typical range of your tight aggressive player. When I 3-bet with K4s I do not lose value from my hand as it is a hand I do not normally open or 3-bet with, I am only playing it because I think I am going to take down the pot enough of the time because of this particular table dynamic. The reason why I prefer to have K4s compared to 62o is firstly K4s makes top pair more often, it is suited which adds some value and it reduces the chance he has AK or KK. If instead I have a hand with good post flop potential i.e. a suited connector or low pocket pair, I likely want to keep the pot small and keep the weaker player in the pot and I will just call the isolation raise and try and make two pair or better or a strong draw. If I have a mid pocket pair e.g. 88 I don’t want to 3-bet as I cannot stand a 4-bet so I will call with these hands. I will be more inclined to call if the regular who isolated will likely 4-bet or fold, when holding a hand that can’t stand a 4-bet but is still good.

When thinking about 3-betting in this situation I will first consider other factors before deciding. If I have players behind who are aggressive and know that I am 3-betting with a wider range then I will have to make sure it is not too wide to the extent that I am easily exploited. Another important factor to consider is my image. When considering my image, it is more feel based than anything; I likely have an overall image and a current image. This could be the case if I play an overall tight aggressive game but have played a looser style for this session. Knowing which one will have a greater impact will help me make better decisions. It is important to indentify the players who will 4-bet you light just because you 3-bet three times in a row against them and the ones that will still wait for a good hand, but widen their range slightly for now. If my image is perceived as tight I will be more inclined to 3-bet a player who is likely isolating.