This week we’re focused on a typical tournament spot where you are out of position against a tough opponent on the flop after you were the preflop aggressor.
Automatically continuation-betting or “c-betting” heads up against less-skilled opponents is often the best play. However, against tougher players you’ll need to focus on how ranges interact and know which types of flops favor the preflop caller more than the preflop aggressor.
Typically, flops containing Ace and King high cards favor the preflop aggressor, while middle to high connected flops tend to favor the preflop caller.
When deciding whether to c-bet against a tough opponent, make sure to pay attention to board texture and which range it favors. When you are out of position against a tough opponent, you must recognize that they will put pressure on you when the flop favors their range. As a result, you should often check when out of position on those types of flops.
Your checking range should be balanced, so it must include some strong and medium strong hands as well as hands that missed the flop.
In addition, it’s important to know which turn cards you might be able to profitably fire a second bullet on. You can often fire a turn second bullet on scare cards such as an Ace, King, or Queen which are overcards to the flop, cards that give you a draw, as well as when you make top pair or better.
If there are no turn cards on which it makes sense for you to bet again, you may not want to c-bet the flop.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
You don’t have to be the world’s best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don’t have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.
Why use the WPT GTO Trainer?
The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.
If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.
Register a free account here (it only takes your e-mail address to begin) to play hands and see true GTO strategy in real-time.
The WPT GTO Trainer has over 4 billion unique solved flops, turns and rivers that are fully playable.
As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.
The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we’re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.