Today you’ll be playing as the Big Blind at a tournament final table defending against a raise from a 30BB stack on the Button. Due to the presence of shorts stacks at this table, there is large ICM pressure on your opponent.
This ICM pressure allows you to generally be more aggressive with a larger portion of your range postflop against this player. Hands that would often be check-calls on the flop can be converted to check-raises.
For example, many draws that you might normally check-call with against a small c-bet should instead be check-raised. This will put maximum pressure on your opponent. Due to the other shorter stacks at the table, your opponent should be unwilling to get all-in with many hands. This will make your aggression significantly more effective.
In addition to frequent check-raises on the flop, you can incorporate another type of aggression into your gameplan by leading the turn. When you check-call the flop with marginal hands and a turn card comes that could help your range more than your opponent’s, you should often lead out on the turn. You can do this both when the turn card helps your actual hand as well as when you didn’t improve but can easily represent the turn hitting your hand.
Cards that help your range more than Villain’s and are good candidates for turn leads are often lower straightening cards, low cards in general, and cards that pair the bottom and middle board cards.
To access the free five hands and test your skills, 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.