The Gap Concept in Poker

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Introduction
The Gap Concept is a term that you may not have heard of, but the concept is one you should already know the basics of. This concept was originally introduced by David Sklansky in his famous book ‘Tournament Poker for Advanced Players’ and continues to provide players with a solid grounding in poker strategy. The concept is one that is simple to explain as you will see in the rest of the article and one that you can think about to implement into your game easily.

What is the Gap Concept?
The Gap Concept simply means that it will take a better hand to call a raise than what it will take to be the initial raiser. This means that a higher value is placed on the hand of the initial raiser because generally speaking, it takes a better hand to raise with when there are more players behind you left to act. The earlier the position of the raiser, the stronger the value of the hand. With more players left to act from behind a player in early position there is more of a chance that someone will have a solid hand. If you don’t have a really strong hand when you raise from early position you leave yourself open to be exploited. That is why there is a difference in the value of a hand raised from early position than one that is raised from late position. I.e. there are fewer players that are likely to have a solid hand behind you.

Applying the Gap Concept
When a player raises from early position, provided that they are a solid player you will be able to ascertain the range of hands that they could have. Typically a player that raises from early position can be placed on hands like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, AK, AQ and AJ. In theory, the later the position of the raiser, the hands they can be placed on becomes wider. As we start to move towards the positions close to the button the quality of hands that will be raised decreases. Hands like KQ and KJ for example and middle pairs like 88 and 99 will regularly be raised from late position.

As you can see the Gap Concept relies on the theory that all players will adhere to ‘normal’ poker practice and only play solid hands from early position. As we know this is not always the case and when we come across a loose player they can have almost anything at times. This concept is only meant to be a guide and give food for thought when thinking about what types of hands your opponent could have. This concept is trying to convey the message that if you are faced with an early raiser, you should only call with premium hands. If the pot has not been raised before you, you will not need the same strength of hand.

You will not need the same strength of hand when raising from late position in an unraised pot as what you will when it has already been raised. The reason for this is twofold. The first part of this is because others will have to apply the Gap Concept to you. Because you have raised before them they will have to place you on a strong hand, and in turn have to have a solid hand themselves to call. The second part of this is the fact that there are fewer players left to act behind you. As you know, the fewer players left to act behind you the more valuable your hand becomes. With any luck you might get a few free rides by taking down an uncontested pot. This is especially handy when you are playing in tournaments and can be crucial in the later stages of them.

Summary
To sum up the Gap Concept there are a couple of things you have to remember. The general principle of it is that in theory, the earlier the player raises a pot the more likely he is to have a strong hand. This means that to call a raise like this you will need a much stronger hand than you would if the pot hasn’t been raised yet. This is why there is a difference between the value of a hand that is raising an uncontested pot from early position and one that is raising from late position. The difference in the value is referred to as the ‘Gap’.