Every decision you make at the poker table is shaped by the information available at that moment — including the board texture, both players’ ranges, table dynamics, and, in tournaments, ICM.

That’s a lot to process, so it’s easy to focus on the wrong factor in a given spot. Less experienced players often fail to see the bigger picture, overlooking how even small changes in assumptions can significantly affect the optimal strategy.

In this article, we’ll show how your strategy should adjust based on position — and how changes in ranges translate directly into changes in optimal play.

Setting the Scene: Two Positions, Two Different Ranges

In this article, we’ll look at a common MTT spot with 40 BB effective stacks.

In the first scenario, you open from the Early Position. In the second, you open from the Cutoff. In both cases, the Button flats preflop, and the flop comes A♠8♦7♦.

Before we get into the details, let’s take a step back and look at the broader picture.

At first glance, Ace-high boards often seem to favour the preflop raiser, which might suggest an aggressive strategy from the out-of-position player. In general, that is true — but the effect is strongest when the caller is the Big Blind.

In that scenario, the preflop raiser usually has a clear equity advantage on many boards, not just Ace-high ones. The Big Blind defends very wide, which means they arrive at the flop with a lot of weak hands that often have to fold. At the same time, their range lacks many of the strongest hands. On top of that, they are out of position.

Things change when the preflop raiser gets called by a player in position. Most often, that will be the Button, since flatting there makes the most strategic sense, but the same general principle applies in other positions too. Not only does the in-position player realize equity more easily, but they also usually arrive at the flop with a stronger range than the Big Blind would.

To put this into perspective: when UTG opens at 40 BB and the Big Blind defends, UTG has a 65% to 35% equity advantage on A♠8♦7♦, with an EV of 4.3 BB in a 5.5 BB pot. When UTG opens, and the Button calls instead, UTG’s equity advantage drops to 55% versus 45%, and the EV falls to 3.5 BB in a 6.5 BB pot.

This difference is easy to understand. Most players are already aware that playing out of position against the Button is very different from playing against the Big Blind. However, even fairly experienced players often miss another important adjustment: strategy also changes when the preflop raiser comes from a different position and therefore arrives at the flop with a different range.

From UTG to Cutoff: How Strategy Changes with Your Range

Whenever you reach the flop, your range is largely determined by your preflop position.

In Scenario A, where you open UTG, you arrive with around 173 combos. In Scenario B, opening from the Cutoff, you have more than twice as many — around 423.

This difference is substantial and directly impacts your overall strategy.

While the Button does defend wider against the Cutoff than against UTG, the difference in absolute terms is relatively small: around 165 combos versus UTG and 194 versus the Cutoff.

In general, the earlier your opening position, the more condensed and high-card-heavy your range becomes. Let’s start with Scenario A.

UTG vs Button: Strong Range, Aggressive Strategy

In this case, your equity advantage is 55% versus 45%, and your EV is 3.5 BB in a 6.5 BB pot.

In the UTG versus Button scenario, most of the hands you opened connect with this flop in some meaningful way. A large part of your range consists of hands that are at least one pair or better, while many of your misses are hands like offsuit broadways or suited broadways without a backdoor flush draw.

Overall, about 63% of your range is connected to this board. That is why the solver prefers a fairly aggressive strategy here, using a one-third-pot continuation bet around 65% of the time.

This is still far from an automatic c-bet spot, as it might be against the Big Blind, but it is clearly a proactive strategy.

The reason is simple: your UTG opening range hits this board quite well. You have many hands with enough equity to bet for value or protection, and enough hands that benefit from denying equity. In practice, if your opponent does not defend properly, you may even be able to c-bet more often than the solver suggests — although being out of position still requires caution.

Cutoff vs Button: Weaker Range, More Passive Strategy

Now, let’s compare that to the Cutoff scenario.

When you open from the Cutoff, you are incentivised to raise a wider, weaker range. As a result, you arrive on the flop with many more hands that qualify as air.

This is immediately visible in the numbers. Your equity is now roughly tied with the Button at 50% versus 50%, and your EV drops to 3.1 BB in the same 6.5 BB pot.

When opening from the Cutoff, around 53% of your range misses the A♠8♦7♦ flop. You now have far more King-high hands, weaker broadways, and underpairs that do not connect well enough to support frequent betting.

That leads to a very different overall strategy. Instead of betting often, the solver now prefers a check-heavy approach. You should check more than 70% of the time and use a one-third-pot bet with the remaining portion of your range.

So even though the board is the same, your strategy changes dramatically because your range is weaker.

A weaker starting range leads to a much more passive flop strategy.

How Should This Shape Your Approach?

There are many more variables we could explore, but this is enough to illustrate the core idea.

In real games, exact numbers will vary. Some opponents will arrive at the flop with wider ranges, others with tighter ones. Some players will overfold against c-bets, while others won’t stab often enough when checked to.

Still, the key lesson remains the same: always pay attention to the ranges both players bring to the flop. Avoid oversimplified rules such as, “Ace-high boards are automatic c-bets for the preflop aggressor.”

The same logic applies in other spots — you should never evaluate board texture in a vacuum.

Deepsolver helps you understand how changes in your range affect your opponent’s optimal response — and vice versa. That’s the key to evaluating hands more holistically and making better, more exploitative decisions.

In the 2026 poker landscape, GTO knowledge — or at least a solid grasp of its fundamentals — is a necessity for aspiring players. However, understanding what game theory recommends is only the starting point. The real edge comes from knowing when and how to deviate to maximize EV against real opponents.

Poker remains a game of exploitation. Optimal strategies assume perfect play on both sides, but your actual opponents will never meet that standard. As a result, the most profitable decisions come from identifying where and how players deviate — and responding accordingly.

On our blog, we regularly explore exploitative concepts, including a recent piece on adjusting against recreational players. This article continues in the same spirit, focusing on a spot where even competent opponents frequently underperform.

Even a Stronger Player Pool Doesn’t Mean a Flawless One

There is no doubt that the overall poker population is improving, especially players who actively care about their results. That does not mean mistakes disappear — they move. Leaks that were common a few years ago are now less prevalent, while new ones emerge as strategies evolve.

If you primarily play MTTs, today’s topic is particularly relevant, although cash game players will likely recognize the underlying dynamics as well.

In this entry, we’ll examine a common scenario in which many opponents — including non-recreational players — deviate significantly from GTO, creating clear opportunities for exploitation.

Small C-Bets: Effective, Popular — and Overused

Continuation betting small has become one of the most widely adopted strategies in modern poker. It allows preflop raiser to apply pressure efficiently, win pots without risking much of their stack, and maintain flexibility across future streets.

Consider a standard situation: the Button opens, the Big Blind defends, effective stacks are 35 BB, and the pot on the flop is roughly 5.5 BB.

Looking at an aggregated Deepsolver report covering 114 distinct flop textures, with five available bet sizes (¼, ½, ¾, 100%, and 150% pot), the most dominant sizing is ¼ pot. Our solver chooses it 43.2% of the time, followed by the ½ pot bet at around 27% frequency.

Exact frequencies vary between simulations and board textures, but one pattern is consistent: solvers frequently prefer betting small on the flop (typically in the 10–30% pot range).

This approach has obvious advantages:

• it is easy to execute,
• it generates immediate fold equity,
• even when called, the your check-raising range retains equity and future playability,
• and in later tournament stages, even small pots carry significant ICM value.

Given these benefits, it’s no surprise that many MTT players lean heavily into small c-betting strategies.

When a Good Strategy Becomes a Leak

Problems arise when players apply this concept mechanically. Some opponents c-bet far more often than theory recommends — sometimes reaching 80% or even close to 100% frequency — assuming that small bets are always safe and profitable.

When left unchallenged, range-betting small can indeed become close to an automatic source of profit for the aggressor.

The key question, then, is how to respond when facing opponents who c-bet too frequently.

When and Why Check-Raising Gains Value

The natural counter is an increased emphasis on check-raising. However, before discussing exploits, it’s important to understand how this interaction looks in equilibrium.

Against a ¼ pot c-bet on the flop, Deepsolver suggests the following average response from the Big Blind, based again on 114 flop textures.

Because this data is aggregated, it hides significant board-specific variation. On some flops — particularly low or paired boards such as T44 rainbow, 633 with a flush draw, or 732 rainbow — optimal check-raising frequencies exceed 20%. On others, including boards like AAQ, AKT with a flush draw, or many monotone textures, check-raising should be close to zero.

This distinction matters. However, once we exclude the worst candidates, increasing your check-raise frequency against opponents who auto-c-bet — or whom you strongly suspect of doing so — is often a profitable adjustment.

The logic mirrors that of frequent c-betting, but from the defender’s side: you win pots outright with fold equity, retain equity when called, and frequently gain profitable turn and river opportunities.

Why Check-Raises Get More Folds Than They Should

If you use a HUD or have access to a good enough number of hand histories, you can investigate how often your opponents call a check-raise after continuation betting. Many players defend their c-bets less than 50% of the time, which already suggests overfolding. Even players who are conscious of not c-betting excessively often struggle to respond correctly once faced with aggression.

To illustrate this, consider a K83 flop with a flush draw — a texture with a near-average theoretical check-raise frequency.

On this board, the in-position player will often range-bet ¼ pot, which is a solver-approved strategy. In equilibrium, the Big Blind should check-raise 13.8% of the time, while the Button is expected to defend more than 56% of their range.

In practice, this level of defense is rare.

Against a flop check-raise on this board, the Button should call approximately 56.8% of hands. That includes all one-pair hands or better, all flush draws, all backdoor Ace-high flush draws, and even some weaker backdoor combinations such as QJ, QT, JT, J9, or T9.

Additionally, certain Ace-high hands with relevant blockers are supposed to continue, and even hands like QJo or JTo should be defended by the in-position player at some frequency.

Most opponents will fall well short of this threshold. What if we input our assumptions into the solver?

If we adjust the Deepsolver simulation to reflect a more realistic defense — for example, by assuming the Button calls only 50% of the time instead of the optimal 56.8%, folding some non-Ace backdoor flush draws and weaker Ace-highs — the optimal check-raising frequency increases to 18.9%.

This is a meaningful jump and, at the same time, a clear adjustment to your flop strategy, driven entirely by opponent tendencies.

Turning Theory Into Action

Even when your check-raise gets called, the core advantages remain. You will often pick up additional equity on later streets, create profitable opportunities to continue applying pressure, or occasionally reach showdown without having to invest further chips.

While additional factors — such as ICM pressure — always need to be taken into account, revisiting and refining your check-raising strategy can be a high-impact adjustment. Many board textures, particularly low, rainbow, or two-tone flops without dominant high cards, naturally lend themselves to more aggressive play.

By using Deepsolver and its aggregate reports, you can identify boards that tend to be over c-bet and separate them from textures where a more cautious approach is justified.

Keep in mind that aggregated data highlights overall tendencies rather than prescribing rigid rules. Each decision should ultimately reflect the specific board, stack sizes, tournament dynamics, and — most importantly — how you expect your opponent to respond.

Heads-up No Limit Hold’em is often considered the purest form of poker.

It tests every important skill at once: theoretical understanding, adaptability, decision-making under pressure, and mental resilience. At its core, HU poker is a duel with constantly shifting dynamics, where the ability to correctly interpret what’s happening at the table and adjust in real time largely determines success.

Undoubtedly, becoming a solid heads-up player requires serious work. It’s one of the most demanding formats and far from the easiest to learn. So a natural question arises: why invest time in such a challenging game when many simpler formats are available?

The short answer is that you will encounter head-up situations more often than you might expect — and being prepared pays off.

Why Heads-Up Skills Matter

For tournament players, the importance of heads-up poker is obvious. Unless a tournament ends in a rare three-way all-in, the final victory is decided heads-up. Stack depths may vary, but knowing how to perform well in a one-on-one scenario is extremely valuable.

Ultimately, beating the final opponent means securing the biggest pay jump and the first-place prize.

Cash game players also benefit from strong HU fundamentals. Sometimes you need to start a new table, and being able to avoid bleeding chips until more players join has a direct impact on your win rate.

Additionally, toward the end of a session, tables often break down naturally, and you may find yourself playing heads-up against an opponent you’d gladly continue battling. That’s when solid HU skills really matter.

Heads-up knowledge is essential for Spin & Go players as well, where each session consists of dozens of one-on-one matches.

Finally, there are still occasional opportunities to play dedicated heads-up games — being ready to take advantage of them will pay off.

What Makes Heads-Up Poker Unique?

The most crucial structural difference in heads-up play is range width. Ranges become dramatically wider compared to full-ring or 6-max games.

In most multiway formats, it’s correct to fold a large portion of weak, offsuit, and disconnected hands — both preflop and versus aggression. Heads-up, this logic no longer applies. In many situations, you’ll be putting money into the pot with up to 80% of all possible starting hands.

Playing so many hands is a direct result of positional dynamics. In heads-up poker, you are in either the Small Blind or the Big Blind every single hand, meaning that every preflop fold directly benefits your opponent. If you adopt an overly passive strategy, a competent opponent will quickly exploit you by picking up uncontested pots again and again.

Beyond strategy, the pace of heads-up poker places heavy demands on mental resilience. In a standard 6-max game — online or live — you can reset emotionally by folding a few hands or sitting out briefly. During heads-up, there is no such luxury.

When there’s only you and your opponent, the action never stops. You must remain focused and emotionally stable at all times. There is nowhere to hide from your opponent, and letting frustration from a lost pot or failed bluff influence your decisions is a fast way to give up tons of EV.

On the other hand, this intensity works both ways. If you’re better prepared and maintain composure under pressure, you can capitalize heavily on your opponent’s mistakes. Each heads-up match involves hundreds of decisions, and every small edge compounds over time.

Although many of your heads-up opponents will be reasonably competent, the complexity of the format leaves plenty of room to build a significant edge. Even regulars who successfully beat cash games and tournaments often neglect their heads-up skills, which makes them vulnerable to well-prepared opponents when it matters most.

How Wide Do Ranges Get in Heads-Up Games?

To illustrate how much ranges expand, let’s compare optimal heads-up ranges with their 6-max equivalents.

Assume a 100 BB cash game and a standard raise-to-2.5 BB/fold strategy.

In a heads-up scenario, the Button (who is also the Small Blind) should open more than 80% of all hands. The Big Blind should defend around 48% by calling and 3-bet approximately 23% of the time. In total, the Big Blind defends over 70% of its range.

Now, let's compare this to a 6-max game.

In this scenario the Button opens roughly 43% of hands. The Big Blind defends about 40% by calling and 13% by 3-betting, for a total defense frequency of around 53%.

The difference is substantial — heads-up poker forces both players to play significantly wider to avoid leaving money on the table. While you can simplify these ranges slightly for practical play, there’s a clear limit.

Becoming a competent HU player means learning how to handle hands that feel uncomfortable and unintuitive to many 6-max specialists — especially weak offsuit and poorly connected combinations.

Improving Your Heads-Up Game Makes You a Better Poker Player

Heads-up poker is not only a way to increase your earning potential; it’s also one of the best forms of poker practice. Every chip you win comes directly from your opponent, and every mistake is immediately punished. This dependence makes the format both demanding and highly rewarding.

Understanding how to navigate situations that other players struggle with is a major edge in poker. Studying and mastering heads-up spots — often overlooked or avoided by many regulars — puts you in a strong position across formats.

Poker solvers are particularly effective tools for developing HU skills. One-on-one scenarios are among the easiest to analyze accurately, as they involve fewer assumptions and no ICM considerations.

Tools like Deepsolver are designed precisely for this purpose, allowing you to build intuition and refine strategies in the exact situations that matter most in heads-up play.

There’s a famous poker saying:

You don’t have to be the best player in the world, you just have to be better than the ones at your table.

And when it comes to winning, few sayings capture it better.

Every day at the poker tables, you encounter opponents of very different skill levels. Recognizing this variety is crucial because, as every developing poker player learns, table selection is a skill in its own right.

The rule is simple: the more recreational players you face, the higher your potential win rate. While outplaying strong regulars with GTO-based strategies may feel exciting and intellectually rewarding, the reality is that in No Limit Hold’em, your most significant edge usually comes from consistently exploiting the common mistakes of recreational players.

That’s why learning to exploit weaker opponents effectively is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. Many players chasing poker success overlook a simple truth: at almost any stakes, consistent profits come from combining solid theory with smart adjustments that capitalize on weaker opponents’ mistakes.

The first step to building an efficient exploitative strategy is understanding a straightforward concept: what are the most common leaks and “sins” of recreational players?

Of course, the play patterns of recreational players differ significantly from one individual to another. To make this article practical, we merged the most common tendencies of casual players into a single “average” profile: the type of opponent who plays mainly for fun and who you are most likely to face every day at micro, low, and even medium stakes.

The most significant leaks often overlap and are prevalent in the most popular poker formats, including cash games and tournaments. What usually changes is not the type of mistake but its magnitude.

To analyze these weaknesses more clearly, we will divide them into two main categories: preflop and postflop. As usual, however, many postflop mistakes are a direct consequence of poor preflop decisions.

The Most Common Preflop Leaks of Recreational Players

The most frequent oversight that snowballs into all kinds of errors among recreational players is playing too many hands in too many situations — in other words, using ranges that are too wide.

It goes without saying that casual players tend to be impatient, overly eager to see flops, and often uneducated about proper range construction. As a result, they rarely shy away from putting money into the pot with hands that will ultimately lose them money.

One of the most blatant mistakes is overcalling preflop 3-bets. In fact, when you see someone consistently doing this, it is often a clear indication that they are an inexperienced player.

Generally speaking, calling a 3-bet when the correct play would be either 4-betting or folding is almost never profitable. The rare exception is when the 3-bet sizing is tiny compared to the effective stacks — but at 100BB, you should almost never cold call a 3-bet.

These calls are especially detrimental to a player’s win rate when made out of position. Entering a 3-bet pot OOP as a cold caller almost always indicates a capped range, which is extremely difficult to play profitably. Conversely, when your opponents cold call your 3-bets out of position, the situation can be very profitable for you — provided you know how to navigate it well.

Even if your recreational opponents are not cold calling 3-bets, they will often underfold to 3-bets as the initial raiser. Casual players rarely find the discipline to fold once they’ve opened a hand they “like,” especially if they believe they are getting to see a flop relatively cheaply.

Another common leak — one that even some advanced players are guilty of — is defending too wide from the blinds. While the poker population as a whole has become more aware of the correct Small Blind strategy, many players still believe that against a min-raise, they can continue with almost their entire range from the Big Blind.

This approach creates countless difficult spots against a solid preflop opening range. It also leads to many avoidable “coolers” that could be prevented with proper hand selection and disciplined folding.

Finally, one of the last major preflop leaks is 3-betting and 4-betting too infrequently. Except for occasional maniacs who thrive on constant action and relentlessly 3-bet or 4-bet, your average recreational opponent is far too passive. They tend to 3-bet in a very linear fashion, only with the absolute top of their range (adding a bluff once in a blue moon), and their 4-bet range is usually extremely narrow — almost exclusively AK and QQ+.

The Most Common Postflop Leaks of Recreational Players

The lack of preflop discipline almost always translates into headache-inducing situations postflop. Even well-trained, theory-aware players will struggle in certain spots if they arrive there with hands they should not have in their range in the first place — and for recreational players, the problem is even greater.

With weak and overly broad preflop ranges, recreational players consistently manoeuvre themselves into difficult situations on later streets.

Let’s start with the common flop leak. Many less experienced players call continuation bets far too eagerly, reaching the turn and river with ranges that are too wide. As a result, these players usually end up doing one of two things:

• overfolding on the turn, because their range contains too many weak holdings, or
• overbluffing on the river, because many of their hands have no real showdown value (for example, fourth or fifth pairs, or high cards from missed draws).

Another typical pattern is weak river betting after discontinued aggression. A typical example is when a player bets the flop, checks the turn, and then fires again on the river. According to available data, these river bets tend to be heavily overbluffed. The likely reason is that after checking the turn, many opponents perceive a three-street check line as a sign of weakness, which encourages recreational players to bluff rivers they would otherwise give up on.

Sizing is another area where clear tendencies appear. Our databases show that recreational players do love to bluff, but they rarely use sizes larger than the pot to do so. Their preferred bluffing sizes are usually around half the pot or three-quarters of the pot. When an unknown recreational player chooses to bet the pot or overbet the pot, this is far more likely to indicate a value hand.

Finally, one of the most common postflop leaks is inelasticity with perceived strong hands. Recreational players often become overly attached to holdings like top pair, and once they reach the river with such a hand, they are highly reluctant to fold — even facing large bets or overbets. This tendency makes them easy to exploit with proper value betting and disciplined bluff selection.

How to Adjust Your Preflop Strategy Against Recreational Players

Knowing what your opponent’s weaknesses are is one thing; making good use of them is another. As always in poker, you need to adjust and consider everything you know about the specific opponent in front of you. Still, there are a few general takeaways that apply when playing against recreational players.

Here’s what to do when it comes to preflop.

Start by focusing on playing as many pots against weaker players as possible, especially when you have position on them. Do not overadjust, though — widening your range slightly with hands that have good playability is fine, but completing the Big Blind with any two cards is not.

Next, adapt your 3-betting strategy. Avoid bluffing opponents who are unwilling to fold to 3-bets. Instead, switch to a linear, value-heavy 3-betting range. If your opponent does not fold after they've opened and rarely 4-bets, then hands like AT, AJ, or medium pairs become clear value raises.

In optimal poker strategy, particularly in cash games, many players adopt a 3-bet or fold approach, meaning they rarely cold call. There are multiple theoretical reasons for this (a topic worthy of its own article), but the core idea is simple: by 3-betting, you retain the betting lead and maintain an uncapped range.

One of the most significant drawbacks of cold calling a raise is that it invites squeezes from the players behind you, often forcing you to fold and lose your equity. However, if you’re seated at a table with recreational players who are more inclined to call than to raise, cold calling becomes much more attractive. Not only will you see more flops with speculative holdings like small pocket pairs, suited connectors, or Ace-high hands, but when you do hit, you are far more likely to get paid off by opponents who lack the discipline to fold.

How to Adjust Your Postflop Strategy Against Recreational Players

Remember that many recreational players defend too wide from the Small Blind and Big Blind. This tendency has two key consequences. Firstly, your opponent will sometimes arrive at showdown with unexpected hands — for example, two-pair combos made from holdings that theoretically should have folded preflop. Secondly, and even more importantly, their range will contain many weak or mediocre hands that you can value bet against.

For instance, if your opponent refuses to fold Ace-highs on the flop regardless of the board texture, then on an Ace turn, you can value bet your top pairs and stronger hands more aggressively, knowing you are betting into a range that contains far more calling hands than it theoretically should.

Naturally, the opposite is also true. If you are playing against a range that is wider than theory suggests, and you hold equity but little to no showdown value, you should bet aggressively to fold out the weakest part of that range.

As mentioned in earlier paragraphs, lines with discontinued aggression (such as bet–check–bet sequences) are often weaker than they should be when performed by recreational players. You should therefore be more willing to bluff in these spots and also to bluffcatch more stubbornly, especially against medium-sized bets. However, always exercise caution versus pot-sized bets or larger — in these cases, recreational players are far more likely to be betting for value.

When it comes to river value betting, you can often deviate heavily from theory if you correctly identify your opponent type. If you hold the nuts or near-nuts against a sticky recreational player who is likely to call, don’t be afraid to use very large sizings — pot bets or even overbets of two times the pot or more. Many players are extremely inelastic with hands stronger than top pair, which allows you to maximize EV in these spots.

On the other hand, if you suspect your opponent’s range consists primarily of hands that are going to fold, use the smallest sizing that will still achieve the fold. In practice, this often means a bet of around half the pot. That way, if you’re wrong and do get called, you lose the minimum.

Playing Well Against Recreational Players Is a Must

An effective strategy against weaker opponents can significantly boost your winnings. Whenever you find yourself at a soft table, remember that GTO provided by poker solvers is the baseline you should strive for — but the key lies in knowing when to follow theory and when to deviate from it to exploit your opponents’ mistakes.

At the end of the day, consistently beating recreational players is the result of recognizing patterns, applying the right strategy, and staying disciplined. Combine theoretical study with practical adjustments, and you’ll see your win rate skyrocket.

In modern poker, both in tournaments and cash games, most heads-up pots follow the same pattern: one player raises a few big blinds, the Big Blind calls, almost always checks the flop, and the raiser then decides whether to continuation bet or not.

Of course, the preflop caller is not obliged to check, but the overwhelming majority of players do - and, generally speaking, they are correct. Leading the flop as the preflop caller (often called donk betting or donking) is a move primarily associated with inexperienced or recreational players. Betting out of position into the preflop aggressor may sometimes disrupt your opponent’s usual game plan, but in the long run, it will most likely hurt your win rate significantly.

Why is that the case? What is the strategic logic behind checking 100% of your range as the preflop caller, and under what circumstances - if any - can leading become a reasonable option?

These are the questions we are going to explore in this article.

The Reasoning Behind Checking to the Aggressor

Let’s look at one of the most common scenarios in No-Limit Hold’em. Everybody folds to you, you open on the Button, and the player in the Big Blind defends. For this example, assume a 100 BB deep cash game. From these positions, the ranges should look roughly like this: you open linearly with about 40% of the strongest hands, while the Big Blind defends with around 40% of the whole hand matrix. Their defending range mainly consists of medium-strength holdings, since the very best hands are moved into a ~10% 3-betting range together with some specific bluffing combos.

Now, if we check the aggregated solver report for a batch of 114 flops, the Big Blind should almost always check - except for fewer than ten boards. While exact checking frequencies change with different stack depths or under ICM pressure in tournaments, the overall pattern is clear: the out-of-position player should check the vast majority of the time, regardless of conditions.

Range advantage

The first is the range advantage of the in-position player. As we’ve already explained on our blog, the strength of a range is always relative to another range. The preflop opener’s range contains the strongest starting hands and therefore holds more equity than the defender’s range. In the ranges suggested by Deepsolver, this translates into roughly a 55-to-45% equity lead.

Most flop textures do not change this ratio dramatically. On average, across all possible boards, the in-position player still holds the stronger range. And what is one of the key reasons to bet in poker? Having adequate equity - the more equity your range has against an opponent’s range, the more often you should bet.

Positional advantage and equity realization

The second reason for a check-heavy out-of-position strategy is positional (dis)advantage. Having a position is one of the biggest edges in poker. The in-position player controls the cost of seeing the turn and river cards and decides whether the hand reaches showdown or ends with a final bet on the river.

Let’s illustrate this with a cash game example. You defend the Big Blind against a Button open (let’s assume that equals around 45% of hands). You hold A♦2♦, and the flop comes 6♠4♠2♠. Against your opponent’s range, your hand has over 50% equity.

That sounds strong - but in reality, your spot is problematic. Almost no turn card improves your hand: higher pairs appear on the board, and every additional spade makes it nearly impossible to reach showdown and win. Even worse, identifying correct bluff opportunities will be hard.

This is a common scenario with weak hands that have no reliable way to improve. You will often get bluffed out by your opponent when they miss, or lose at showdown when they connect. While your hand shows good equity on the flop, your chances of realizing that equity - actually winning the pot 50% of the time - are very slim.

Being in position puts the aggressor in the driver’s seat, making equity realization much easier and leaving little room for the out-of-position player to lead on the flop.

Some less experienced players try to solve this problem by leading their strongest hands into the preflop aggressor. However, this strategy is easy to exploit - even by opponents without deep theoretical knowledge. They will fold their weakest hands and continue only with strong holdings or hands that can improve significantly. Combined with the positional advantage, this makes playing against a poorly designed, lead-heavy strategy very straightforward.

There Are Situations in NLH When Leading Makes Sense

However, unless you are an experienced player, there is no reason to overcomplicate your strategy. You will be perfectly fine sticking to a 100% check-as-preflop-caller approach and focusing your study time on more influential aspects of the game.

That being said, for those curious about when leading actually makes sense, we won’t leave the topic unfinished - in the next article we will take a closer look at the best situations to lead.

The biggest poker series of the year has come to an end. The 56th edition of the World Series of Poker ran for over a month, from late May to mid-July. Exactly 100 bracelets were awarded across a diverse schedule that included nearly every poker variant - from fan-favourite No-Limit Hold’em to the lesser-known TORSE.

Each year, the WSOP draws global attention, turning Las Vegas into the centre of the poker world.

Every edition brings its own stories - deep runs, unexpected victories, and moments of high tension. So, what stood out this year? What will the poker community remember from WSOP 2025?

There was a lot of talk, not necessarily friendly

At its core, poker is a social game - played against other people. While modern technology allows us to compete online 24/7 without ever seeing another player, for many, live poker remains the purest expression of the game. The face-to-face nature of live events introduces a layer of psychological depth and interpersonal dynamics that online environments can’t replicate.

Over the past decade, the dominant trend among both recreational and professional live players has been to stay calm, quiet, and unreadable - minimizing any physical or verbal tells. While this strategy is effective from a competitive standpoint, it often reduces the entertainment value of live poker, particularly for spectators following major events like the WSOP.

That’s why, when a player defies this norm - intentionally or not - they tend to draw immediate attention. This year, two such figures stood out, both earning the unofficial title of WSOP 2025’s “villains.”

The first infamous hero was Martin Kabrhel. A highly accomplished Czech player, Kabrhel’s poker resume includes four WSOP bracelets and five Circuit rings. However, his success at the tables has long been shadowed by a reputation for controversial behavior. Accusations have ranged from trash talk and angle shooting to more serious allegations like card marking - creating an environment many players find difficult to tolerate. While widely criticized, Kabrhel still has his supporters - some appreciate the unpredictability and chaotic energy he brings, arguing that it adds a unique form of entertainment to the game.

Here’s an illustration of the chaos mentioned above.

The second controversial figure to make a mark during the WSOP 2025 Main Event was an English lawyer, Will Kassouf. Known for his polarizing presence at the tables, Kassouf gained notoriety years ago with his now-iconic phrase, “nine high like a boss.”

This year, however, his antics reached new levels. Constant verbal play and confrontational table talk drew the attention of tournament officials, leading to multiple penalties, a shortened shot clock, and at one point - a dead hand. Kassouf’s 2025 run ended with a verbal outburst that exceeded even his usual standards. As a result, he received a formal ban from the remainder of the WSOP 2025 schedule.

Doug Polk provided a full recap of the Kassouf incident.

There might have been some "dealing" involving

One of the long-standing principles of the World Series of Poker is its strict policy against deal-making. According to official WSOP rules, prize splits and financial agreements between players are prohibited - a regulation that reinforces the prestige of winning a bracelet outright.

This year, however, one of the newer poker operators in the U.S. market - ClubWPT Gold - added an extra layer of intrigue to the WSOP by launching a high-profile promotion, offering a select group of players a $1,000,000 bonus, payable if they managed to win a WSOP bracelet during the series.

Qualifying for the bonus already required beating a large online field, but turning that into an actual WSOP bracelet win seemed close to impossible. And yet, it happened - twice.

The first bonus was claimed during the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout (Event #20), where Michael Lavin secured a $267,000 prize - and the additional million, boosting his total winnings nearly fivefold.

That remarkable story was quickly eclipsed by the controversy that followed in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Millionaire Maker (Event #53). When the event reached heads-up play, one of the finalists - Jesse Yaginuma - was in contention for the same $1 million bonus. His opponent, James Carroll, held a nearly 9-to-1 chip lead, making Yaginuma’s chances extremely slim.

What followed was an unusual heads-up dynamic. Despite starting with just 13 big blinds, Yaginuma began climbing back into the match. His bold play was met with surprisingly frequent folds from Carroll, and within roughly 90 minutes, Yaginuma had secured the victory.

Observers quickly noted a pattern in the heads-up play: Carroll’s betting behavior appeared overly passive, and some commentators speculated on a signaling system - where odd bets indicated bluffs and even bets signaled value hands. These suspicions gained traction, and the full final table replay, available online, became a subject of intense scrutiny.

You can watch the full final table on YouTube and judge for yourself whether the criticism was warranted.

The tournament organizers launched an official investigation following the unusual conclusion. The outcome was unprecedented: the WSOP declared that no bracelet would be awarded. Instead, the combined prize money for first and second place was split between the two finalists - marking the first time in WSOP live event history that a bracelet was withheld due to suspected collusion.

Both players have since been banned from participating in future WSOP events for an indefinite period.

The WSOP’s response was swift and decisive, but it sparked widespread debate within the poker community. Many players and commentators criticized the organization’s refusal to allow deal-making in the first place, arguing that strict enforcement of anti-deal rules may indirectly incentivize off-the-books arrangements with questionable integrity.

One Player Did What No One Had Done Before

While the 2025 WSOP Player of the Year title went to Shaun Deeb - marking his second time earning the distinction - the player who truly captured the spotlight this year was Michael Mizrachi.

Mizrachi began his historic run by winning one of the most prestigious events on the WSOP calendar: the $50,000 Poker Players Championship (Event #66). He defeated Bryn Kenney heads-up, securing his fourth title in this event, his seventh career bracelet, and a $1.3 million prize.

The Poker Players Championship is widely regarded as a test of all-around poker mastery. It features a rotation of nine different games and demands not only deep technical knowledge but also a bankroll substantial enough to enter a $50,000 event. Winning it once is a major accomplishment - winning it four times is unprecedented.

But Mizrachi’s 2025 run didn’t end there.

Just days after claiming the PPC title, Mizrachi made an improbable deep run in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event - the most-watched and most-coveted tournament in the series. Outlasting over 9,000 players, he reached the final table and entered with a solid chip stack.

While some good fortune undoubtedly played a role, Mizrachi dominated from that point forward. His performance at the final table was relentless, culminating in one of the fastest Main Event final table finishes in recent memory. He secured the $10 million first-place prize and, with it, cemented his legacy - instantly earning a place in the Poker Hall of Fame.

In our previous article, we discussed how to identify when you have a range advantage or a nut advantage in a given spot. In this post, we’ll go a step further and break down additional concepts that are essential for understanding poker ranges at a deeper level.

Once you spend some time studying GTO strategies, you’ll notice that ranges tend to organize themselves in consistent, structured ways depending on the situation. There are specific terms that help describe these patterns more clearly - and understanding them can significantly improve how you approach hands at the table.

What Is a Linear Range in Poker?

A linear range in poker includes the strongest and most playable hands in a continuous, top-down fashion. One of the clearest examples is a first-in opening range.

Let’s say you’re playing a standard 100 BB cash game and you're first to act Under the Gun against unknown opponents. In this spot, you’re likely opening around 18% of hands. This range includes the strongest and most straightforwardly playable hands - premium pairs, strong broadway hands, and suited connectors. Since the selection is based on raw hand strength from the top down, this is referred to as a linear range.

A similar concept applies when the action folds to the Big Blind, who faces an open raise. The BB defense range is also often linear, but typically shifted: it excludes the absolute strongest hands (which would have 3-bet) and the weakest hands (which are folded), and instead includes a middle slice of hands that are playable but not strong enough to raise. Again, this results in a linear cut - just from a different part of the overall hand spectrum.

In tournament poker, a common linear range appears when the Big Blind is facing a shove from the Small Blind. The Big Blind will call with a specific percentage of the strongest hands, depending on stack sizes, ICM pressure, and player tendencies. While the exact percentage varies, the structure is the same: it's a top-down slice of the strongest hands, making it a textbook example of a linear calling range.

Now contrast that with a polarized range, which follows a very different logic.

Polarized Ranges in Poker

A polarized range consists of two distinct groups of hands:

1. Nutted hands – those that beat almost everything in your opponent’s range.
2. Bluffs or trash hands – those that are too weak to win at showdown and are often beaten by your opponent’s entire range.

Let’s say you're on the Button, you 3-bet versus a Cutoff open, and they call. The board runs out A♠ A♦ T♣ 5♣ 2♥. You’ve c-bet the flop and barreled the turn, and now you’re on the river.

At this point, your possible holdings tend to fall into two categories:

• Very strong hands (e.g., trips, full houses) with 70%+ equity.
• Complete air (missed bluffs) with almost no showdown value.

In this spot, your river betting range should be polarized:

• Value bets come from the top of your range.
• Bluffs come from the bottom - hands with no showdown value that can fold out better hands.

You don’t want to bet medium-strength hands here, as they rarely get called by worse and rarely fold out better.

While most preflop ranges are linear, polarized ones do occur in some spots - though less frequently. A common example is raising from the Big Blind versus a Small Blind limp in tournament poker.

In this scenario, the Big Blind often raises:

• Premium hands (e.g., AKo, QQ+, suited broadways) that are happy to play for stacks.
• Very weak hands (e.g., offsuit 2x, 3x, 4x) that have poor playability postflop but can occasionally take down the pot preflop.

Hands in the middle (like Q8o, K7o, small suited connectors) are often just checked, because they aren’t strong enough to raise for value, nor weak enough to justify using as a bluff.

Situations involving these kinds of hands often lead to what’s known as a condensed range.

What Is a Condensed Range in Poker?

A condensed range is the opposite of a polarized one. Instead of having extremes (nut hands and bluffs), it’s made up mostly of medium-strength hands. A condensed range lacks both the very best and the very worst holdings. This “condensation” occurs because the player using this range is capping their holdings—removing premiums and folding the weakest hands.

One of the most common examples of a condensed range is when the Small Blind flats a raise in tournament poker.

Let’s say you're in the Cutoff with 40BB and open-raise. The Small Blind, holding a similar stack, chooses to call instead of 3-bet. In this spot, their flatting range is highly condensed:

• They usually exclude the strongest hands (those would be 3-bets).
• They also fold the weakest holdings (too weak to call profitably out of position).

As a result, their range is made up of suited broadways, medium pairs, suited Aces, and playable suited connectors - hands that perform decently postflop but aren't strong enough to raise or weak enough to fold.

Strategic implications for c-betting

Even though you’ll still often hold a range and nut advantage as the preflop raiser, your c-bet strategy against a condensed Small Blind calling range should differ from your strategy versus the Big Blind.

Against the Big Blind, who defends with a wide and often unstructured range, many boards allow you to c-bet aggressively - there are plenty of combos that completely miss and fold immediately.

But against the Small Blind, it's a different dynamic:

• Their range is tighter and more connected to the board.
• Even without the nuts, they’ll hit many flops with decent equity.As a result, your c-bets face more resistance, and over-bluffing becomes more punishable.

While condensed ranges are centered around medium-strength holdings, there are also spots where the range includes a broader mix of hand strengths - that’s where merged ranges come in.

What Is a Merged Range in Poker?

A merged range includes a balanced mix of:

• nut hands (top of range),
• buffs (bottom),
• and medium-strength hands (the in-between).

Unlike polarized ranges, which only include extremes, a merged range gives you more flexibility on future streets. This makes it particularly well-suited for spots like check-raising on the flop, where you want to retain strong hands, apply pressure, and stay balanced across many turn and river runouts.

Consider a Button vs Big Blind situation at 40BB stacks. The Button open-raises, and the Big Blind defends. The flop comes 9♠ 7♦ 7♣ rainbow.

When the Button c-bets, solvers suggest that:

1. The Big Blind should respond with frequent aggression, often check-raising.
2. Importantly, this check-raising range is merged - it’s not just full houses and bluffs.

If you study the solver output, you’ll see that the BB is supposed to raise a bit of every hand category:

• some 9x and 7x for value
• some 8x, 6x, and random overcards as semi-bluffs
• occasionally, even underpairs or backdoor-heavy hands.

This leads to a resilient, flexible range on the turn:

• you can improve to showdown value by pairing up.
• you can continue betting for value with strong hands.
• you can keep bluffing on suitable runouts.

Had you constructed your range in a polarized way - only with trips or air - you’d lack this flexibility. Your turn options would be more binary: keep blasting or give up.

Learn to Recognize Who Is Capped

One of the most essential concepts in working with poker ranges is understanding who is capped and who is uncapped.

A capped range lacks the strongest possible hands on a given board. For example, when the Big Blind defends versus an early position raise, they usually don't have hands like AA, KK, or AK - so on a board like A♣ K♦ 8♠, they are structurally capped. They simply don't have the top sets or top two-pair combos that the preflop raiser can have.

The opposite can also be true. On a low-connected board like 9♦ 8♠ 6♥, the early position player is now capped, because their range lacks suited connectors and low pairs that the Big Blind can easily have. The Big Blind, in that case, is uncapped and can credibly represent the nuts.

An uncapped range includes all of the strongest hand combinations possible given the board texture. But ranges can shift. A player who was uncapped on the flop might become capped later - like when the board pairs on the turn or river and only one range realistically contains trips or full houses.

Understanding who is capped heavily influences strategy.

The uncapped player typically takes the aggressive line, by betting big, applying pressure and realizing more equity across their range.

With tools like poker solvers, identifying capped and uncapped spots has become more accessible than ever. The key is applying that understanding in real time - so you can recognize when your opponent is structurally limited and capitalize on it.

A significant milestone in any poker player's development is transitioning from thinking about specific hands to considering ranges.

Many beginner poker players assess their decisions based solely on their hand, while mistakenly placing their opponents on exact, specific hands. If you regularly participate in low-stakes live cash games or tournaments, you've likely overheard other players rationalizing their decisions by pinpointing precisely what hand their opponent might hold.

While successfully guessing your opponent's exact cards can feel rewarding, building your poker strategy around this approach has limited effectiveness. Poker, at its core, involves analyzing combinations and ranges—possible groups of hands your opponent could hold and how they might play them.

To excel and consistently make profitable decisions, it is crucial to embrace thinking in terms of ranges rather than individual hands. This shift broadens your strategic perspective, deepens your understanding of the game, and significantly enhances your poker performance.

What is a range (of hands) in poker?

In poker, a hand range refers to a player's entire set of possible hands at a specific moment during a game.

Ranges can vary greatly depending on the situation:

Wide ranges
For example, when you're in the Big Blind facing an open raise from the Button in a deep-stacked cash game, both your range and your opponent's range will typically be broad, often including about 40-50% of all possible hands.

Narrow ranges
On the other hand, ranges can become extremely tight in critical tournament situations. Imagine a scenario deep in a tournament where multiple players have gone all-in before you. Due to stack sizes and the impact of ICM (Independent Chip Model) considerations, you'll likely need to fold most of your hands, continuing only with premium holdings such as pocket Kings or Aces.

Interestingly, the same ICM principles can sometimes encourage extremely loose play when you are first to act, particularly in satellite tournaments or situations where you hold a significant chip advantage.

How poker ranges shape your GTO strategy

A game-theory optimal (GTO) poker strategy directly results from comparing the players' hand ranges in specific situations. The strength of your range compared to your opponent's range determines whether your strategy should lean toward aggression or defensiveness.

Simply put, if your range in a particular spot contains many strong hands (such as top pairs, two pairs, or better), you should typically favor betting or raising aggressively. Conversely, if your opponent's range is stronger, you should adopt a more passive approach, checking and calling more frequently rather than betting or raising.

Understanding your range in a given spot is fundamental to choosing the correct strategic path.

Preflop ranges, especially for online cash game players, are relatively straightforward. Typically, you can memorize your standard opening, 3-betting, and cold-calling ranges from various positions, adjusting only slightly when encountering opponents who deviate significantly from typical strategies.

However, preflop ranges in tournaments become considerably more complex. In the early stages, when payouts are still far off, ranges tend to be consistent and straightforward, as stack sizes are relatively equal and Independent Chip Model (ICM) factors are minimal. But as you progress deeper into the tournament, particularly upon reaching the final table, each player eliminated creates a substantial payout jump, causing preflop ranges to vary dramatically based on different stack sizes and ICM implications.

So, how do you navigate this complexity? One step at a time.

Before diving deeper, let's clarify two essential terms related to poker ranges that will significantly enhance your understanding and strategy: range advantage and nut advantage.

What is range advantage in poker?

Poker is fundamentally a game of probabilities. Consider a scenario where you go all-in holding pocket Aces against an opponent's random hand. Your Aces will win about 85% of the time, meaning your hand (AA) has approximately 85% equity against a random range, leaving your opponent just a 15% chance of winning.

However, in practical play, your range of hands is almost always broader than just pocket Aces.

Imagine you open-raise from the Under-the-Gun (UTG) position in a 100 big blind cash game, and only the Big Blind (BB) calls. Assuming both players use standard GTO (Game Theory Optimal) ranges:

• Your UTG range typically includes around 18% of the best possible hands, such as premium pairs, suited Aces, broadway cards, and select suited connectors.
• The Big Blind's range is naturally wider, encompassing about 25% of possible hands, but lacking many premium holdings like high pairs and strong broadways.

When comparing these ranges preflop, your UTG range holds an equity advantage of roughly 57% vs. 43%. Poker players call this advantage a range advantage.

What is nut advantage in poker?

A nut advantage occurs when one player's range contains significantly more combinations of the strongest possible hands (typically two pairs or better) than their opponent's range.

Let's return to our previous flop examples to illustrate this clearly:

AK7 rainbow
On this board, the UTG player holds a range advantage (expressed through overall equity) and a significant nut advantage. The UTG player's range includes premium combinations such as AA, KK, and AK - notably absent from the Big Blind's range.

876 with a flush draw
Here, the situation is reversed. Although the UTG player still holds powerful combinations like overpairs and sets, they lack the absolute strongest hands, such as straights and many two-pair combos. Conversely, the Big Blind's defending range connects much better with this board, containing suited combinations of T9, 95, and 54 (which complete straights) and two-pair combinations like 87, 86, and 76. This gives the Big Blind a substantial nut advantage.

Are range and nut advantages always connected?

Generally speaking, range advantage and nut advantage often appear together—having one usually implies having the other. However, this isn't always the case, especially on later streets. Situations can arise where one player holds the range advantage while the other maintains the nut advantage, significantly affecting strategic decisions. This advanced topic merits further discussion in another article.

Summing up:

High-card boards typically favor the original raiser's range (such as UTG).

Low-connected boards usually favor the Big Blind defender's range.

The greater your range advantage, the more aggressive your strategic approach can and should be.

Understanding these concepts is fundamental for developing sound, profitable poker strategies and adapting effectively to different board textures.

There's more to ranges in poker!

Poker ranges are a fundamental aspect of strategic thinking, essential for players striving to elevate their game. Although we've explored the basics, this topic has much more depth. In future articles, we'll examine further range-related concepts in detail.

We encourage you to experiment with range adjustments and explore how they influence your strategic decisions using Deepsolver and its powerful node-locking options.

The poker landscape is constantly evolving, and mistakes that were common a decade ago are now rarely seen. As a result, the dream of making a living from poker is no longer as accessible as it was during the online poker boom. Today’s average player is significantly stronger and more informed than in the past. However, beating the game is still very much achievable.

While becoming a top regular in any format is more challenging than ever - given that today’s elite players are true poker virtuosos - you can still consistently win at low and mid stakes in 2026. The key lies in being more disciplined, structured, and strategically sound than you were a few years ago.

Despite the game's evolution, poker remains, at its core, a contest of discipline and consistency. So what does it take to become an above-average player today? Here's our take on how to beat No-Limit Hold 'em at low stakes in 2026.

Stick to Solid Ranges - Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Over the years, strategies across virtually every poker format have become more refined and aligned with optimal play. The same goes for preflop ranges in the most common situations. In 2026, you can easily access well-constructed opening ranges, 3-bet ranges, and cold calling ranges for nearly every standard spot.

The key is simple: consistency in using your ranges is what makes them effective. While this may sound obvious, many players still fall into the trap of justifying speculative deviations in an attempt to "exploit" their opponents. It’s easy to convince yourself that certain off-range hands are worth playing - but more often than not, this leads to trouble.

The mechanism is straightforward: if your preflop play is too loose, you'll frequently end up with hands with little to no showdown value. And when you realize you can't win the pot without bluffing, it's tempting to start firing with hands that don’t belong in your bluffing range.

At low and mid stakes, most of your profit comes from getting paid when you hit strong value hands — not from trying to outplay your opponents in marginal spots. Occasional bluffs are fine but should be made with the best possible combos. If you want to find a solid balance — without diving into the advanced math behind range construction — start by sticking to tight, well-defined preflop ranges.

Whenever you face aggressive action from solid, tight opponents, think twice before calling with marginal holdings — especially out of position. Realizing equity in these spots is difficult, and deviating from your ranges too often will likely cost you money. Be especially careful with hands on the fringe of your VPIP range; discipline here goes a long way.

Don’t Miss Thin Value — Especially on the River in Position

As mentioned earlier, most of your profit at low stakes — and even at many mid and high-stakes games — comes from betting your value hands and getting called by worse.

That’s why developing the ability to identify thin-value spots is one of the most valuable skills in poker. Executing thin value bets correctly can significantly boost your win rate. One of the most common leaks at micro and mid stakes is failing to value bet hands that are clearly strong enough — especially on the river. You’ll often see players check back decent top pairs without even considering a bet.

The river is the best street to start applying thin value bets, especially when you’re in position (IP). There are no more cards to come, and the game tree is simplified: your opponent can call, fold, or raise. This makes decision-making more straightforward — and more profitable for disciplined players.

So, how do you know if your hand is strong enough for a thin value bet?

Let’s assume you’re on the river in position. Your first step should be to visualize your opponent’s likely range and how it interacts with the board. When considering a value bet, ask yourself the following key questions:

• Does my opponent’s range contain many strong hands?

(In most cases — especially after they check — it doesn’t.)

• Would they check a hand that beats my value bets?

(Some players might check hands that are strong enough to bet themselves)

• What portion of their range is likely to call my bet with a worse hand?

(You want to target second-best hands that still feel “too strong to fold.”)

• Is this opponent capable of check-raising as a bluff?

(If not, you can value bet thinner with less fear of getting blown off your hand.)

Solvers have shown us that, in many river spots, the in-position player should prefer larger sizing - typically between half-pot and overbet. That’s because your bets reopen the action, and you want to make them count. Betting just for the sake of it isn’t enough — your action needs justification.

The most common reason for betting in these spots is simple: your range contains a high number of natural value hands, and you want to extract maximum value from worse hands while still applying pressure with your bluffs.

And one last tip: when you do get check-raised on the river at these stakes, believe it. Unless you have a very strong read, it’s usually best not to pay them off.

Don’t Try to Be a Hero Too Often

Game theory optimal (GTO) strategy assumes that every player is perfectly balanced — always bluffing and value betting in the right proportions. As a result, GTO often forces you to put chips into the pot even with marginal hands, because you can’t win money without taking risks.

This way of thinking is extremely useful for learning the game and building a solid baseline strategy. However, there’s one important caveat: your average opponent at micro and mid stakes is far from balanced.

That’s why, against unknown or passive players, it’s often correct to fold more frequently than solvers would suggest. Being disciplined in spots where your opponent is unlikely to bluff will save you significant money over time.

A common leak at these stakes is calling too frequently with hands like QQ–AA in situations where the betting line clearly indicates strength. More experienced players recognize that many of these spots are heavily under-bluffed — and that bluff catchers lose value if your opponent simply isn't bluffing.

This is where solvers become incredibly valuable. They allow you to adjust your calling frequencies based on assumptions about your opponent’s range construction and bluffing tendencies.

Let’s consider a practical example:

You defend the Big Blind versus an UTG open. The flop comes A♠ A♥ Q♦ — your opponent c-bets 30%, and you call. The turn is the T♥, adding a flush draw. They continue for 70%, and again, you call. The river is the 9♠, completing no draws. Now they fire one last barrel.

In the graphic below, you can compare how often you should call the river assuming:

• a balanced opponent with enough natural bluffs (left side),
• a player whose range is almost entirely value (right side).
  

As you can see, the difference in optimal calling frequency is significant — 50% versus 24%. This is just one example of how proper adjustments can separate long-term winners from break-even players.

Discipline and Study Lead to Real Progress

There’s still plenty of money to be made at the micro and mid stakes in No-Limit Hold’em — even in 2026. The key lies in consistent discipline, smart decision-making, and using the right tools to sharpen your edge away from the tables.

With Deepsolver, building a well-rounded and efficient strategy becomes much easier. Whether you're fine-tuning your ranges, analyzing tough spots, or prasticing your postflop lines, you’ll get precise, solver-backed feedback tailored to real in-game situations.

Try it for yourself with a 7-day free trial - and start bridging the gap between theory and profit.

What should be your number one goal when playing poker?

There are many potential answers to this question, but if you ask us, we would be pleased to reply: winning as much as possible (whether we talk about chips or money).

A concept to help you achieve that goal is geometric bet sizing.

What's the point?

Any poker hand has a maximum of four betting rounds (preflop, flop, turn and river). It means that most of the time, you'll have four opportunities to bet and put as many chips into the pot as possible. Of course, since the game's name is No Limit Hold 'em, you can go all in at any point in the hand, but as you're probably aware, that's not the most effective way to choose your bet sizing.

How should you decide what's the optimal sizing? Let's look at an example.

Suppose you're playing a cash game with 100BB effective stacks. You open 2.5 BB from the CO with AK and get called by the Big Blind.

FLOP (5.5 BB): On the A72 flop, you bet 2 BB, and your opponent calls.

TURN (9.5 BB): On the K turn, you bet 3 BB, and your opponent calls.

RIVER (15.5 BB): On the A turn, you bet 5 BB, your opponent calls, and you scoop a 25.5 BB pot.

Many players won't think much after winning such a hand. They probably will be happy with hitting the top boat and moving on to the next hand.

Let's look at the same hand, assuming you'd bet ⅔ instead of roughly ⅓ on every street. In this case, you'd bet 4 BB on the flop (making the pot 13.5 BB on the turn), 10 BB on the turn (increasing the pot to 33.5 BB on the river), and 20 BB on the river (effectively winning 73.5 BB pot).

Even if you only bet bigger on the flop and bet ⅓ on the turn and river, the final pot would be roughly 40 BB. Of course, we assume that your opponent would be inelastic to the bet sizing you choose and always call, which is unrealistic, but at the same time, many opponents in the games you should be playing will often not care much about your sizing (unless you go very big).

How does the geometric bet sizing concept work?

Knowing the geometric bet sizing allows you to set up all-in as the final bet for the exact % of the pot as used on the earlier streets.

For example, if you start with 78 BB and the 6BB pot on the flop, your geometric sizing would be 100% of the pot, meaning you would bet 6BB on the flop, 18 BB on the turn, and 54 BB on the river.

What's the geo sizing for the 100 BB stack (assuming the pot equals 5.5 on the flop)? That would be ~117%, meaning you should bet roughly 6.5 BB and 21.5 BB on the turn and river, leaving you with a slight overbet of ~70BB on the river.

The point here, however, is not to choose a so-called perfect sizing on every street; it is to be aware of how big you should bet to maximize the expected value of your range (and sometimes exact hand) and foresee how big the pot will be on the future streets.

Remember that your game plan should start preflop; while the 2.5 BB open size in online games is close to optimal, it's a different story in soft live games. Many times, people will call your opens regardless of how big you go, and it's up to you to find out the biggest price your opponents are willing to call to see the flop.

Do not bet small if you can get away with betting big

When you're at the table where people are willing to put money into the pot, you'll have to plan your bet sizing accordingly, especially as the stacks grow deeper. Most of the time, especially in the cash games, increasing your bets by a few Big Blinds here and there will allow you to get your whole stack in the middle with your strongest holdings without having to use massive overbets (which will often make even very splashy opponents vary that they should fold).

You should know when and against whom betting a handful of BB more on the flop will allow you to bet much bigger on the river. Identifying such spots will skyrocket your win rate.

Train you intuition

The practical application of geometric sizing is not to come up with the "perfect" sizings that you'll mindlessly follow (that's why we deliberately omitted the mathematical formula for it); its primary purpose is to point you in the direction of betting big enough to make your life easier on later streets.

As is often the case when playing poker, going all-in won't always be possible or advisable. Sometimes, there will be no way to increase the pot realistically; other times, your overall range of hands won't be strong enough to validate going for the geometric bet sizing.

Nevertheless, the ability to recognize when the geometric bet sizing idea can be applicable will positively affect your bottom line. That's why working with poker solvers is the way to improve your poker skills in 2025 and beyond.

With the help of Deepsolver, you'll be able to find out when you should bet and how big, and with enough practice, you'll improve your intuition to find the best sizing against the opponents you face daily.

Quite often, the first step in learning a new skill is the hardest, and it's no different when you dive into the world of GTO and poker solvers. Despite our constant effort to improve Deepsolver's functionalities and interface, there will always be some complexity to overcome whenever you try to understand crucial concepts of optimal poker strategy.

We've already covered the topic of navigating basic Deepsolver's functionalities, along with taking a look at the GTO vs exploitative strategy debate.

This time, we'd like to offer a few practical tips you should consider whenever you analyze and implement poker solver strategies.

Remember, you play poker versus humans

Forgetting this basic fact is the most common and trivial misconception made by newcomers to the GTO world. They dive deep into simulations, set up optimal (often very wide) preflop ranges, use multiple bet sizes and frequencies with a particular hand, and take them for granted.

In reality, the GTO poker strategy is impossible for humans to replicate, so even the best will deviate from it, let alone your average opponent in low- to mid-stakes games. Despite many poker players improving, the population is nowhere near playing optimally. Remember that so you won't get carried away by theoretical deliberations and overcomplicate your poker solvers' study.

Always take a closer look at the preflop ranges

Every poker hand starts preflop, and that's what you should evaluate first.

How do you define your opponent's range? Is your opponent more on the tighter or looser side? Are they likely to open more or less than the solver suggests?

Answering these questions will help you adjust the ranges and make them as accurate as possible. Eliminating the hands that are unlikely to be present in your opponent's range will also make it easier to draw valuable conclusions.

Which player hit the board better?

When you come up with final ranges, it's time to think about the board. Which player's range hits more frequently? Whose range has the equity advantage, and which player has the range advantage?

Whenever you are about to run a simulation, take a while and guess how the equity of both player's ranges will split; it's an excellent exercise that will sharpen your in-game intuition.

The primary example is the UTG vs BB scenario on a high board, like AAQ, which will favor the player opening the pot heavily. The reverse situation will occur on a board like 765, which is assumed to be an excellent board for the BB player. Of course, most boards fall into the "in-between category", but the more time you spend on this toy game, the better your overall range awareness will be.

Which sizings to choose from?

The natural consequence of the board structure and the preflop ranges are the sizings preferred by the solver. Of course, the fewer sizings are in your strategy, the easier it will be to implement.

With time and experience, choosing appropriate sizings will become easier, but how can you determine which sizing the solver prefers in the particular situation? Start by running a simulation with various bet sizes (in the case of Deepsolver, the max is 5), then rerun it with only one or two preferred sizings. The expected value of both strategies will often be very close, and you will be able to downsize the elaborate strategy into one, including one sizing, making it much easier to implement.

Which hands bet and why?

When you make a bet, you almost always do it either as a bluff or for value. Usually, it's easy to come up with hands that want to bet for value (it's finding a threshold between a value bet and a bluff that can be tricky) since the choice is intuitive.

Things get much more interesting, when you look for hands to bluff with. Whenever you analyze the sim on the flop, take a look at hands that solvers choose to bluff; while some of them may be unclear at first glance, most will fall into a few common categories, like having a lot of good turn cards to continue aggression, blocking value or having so low equity, that they won't ever win at showdown.

Understanding the qualities of hands that solvers recognize as good bluffing candidates in certain spots will make finding them in the game easier, primarily when a good bluffing opportunity manifests itself.

What is your opponent actually doing (and how do they differ from GTO)?

You can safely assume that every opponent you face will differ from GTO in some way. The sooner and more accurately you identify your opponents' tendencies, the more effectively you exploit them.

Let's take the simulation for the 765 board mentioned above in the UTG versus BB scenario. The optimal poker strategy assumes the BB should lead approximately ⅔ of the time. When you're the in-position player, ask yourself how many of your opponents would choose to do so. We bet that only a tiny percentage of the player pool is close to the correct lead frequency.

As a result, you have to include this deviation in your simulations and node lock your opponent's decisions.

In this exact case, if the BB leads as they should, the c-bet frequency for the IP player should equal around 53%. However, if we assume that BB never leads (which strengthens their range significantly), the IP player should continue betting only 10% of their range!

As you can see, a simple adjustment drastically changes the strategy and increases your edge in spots where many players fail to adjust their strategy to the real-life environment.

An unexploitable GTO strategy is one thing; applying it is something completely different

However potent it is, GTO poker strategy should primarily be a guideline, filtered by what's happening in your particular game. Mindlessly obeying solvers' input may improve your win rate slightly, but it won't drastically improve you as a player.

The key to increasing your poker skills is improving your understanding of why some hands should be played a certain way and adjusting what you do to what your current opponents are up to in real time.

The best way to do so is to work with Deepsolver, a modern poker tool with every functionality a proper solver should have.

Recently, we've covered the topic of continuation betting on our blog. Hopefully, our guide to c-betting gave you a basic understanding of approaching this important aspect of poker strategy.

This time, we'd like to shed some light on a frequent situation (if you are an MTT player) where you might be c-betting too much.

Many players, even experienced ones, tend to gravitate towards c-betting their whole range on many boards. While this may have been a valid strategy a few years ago, it is not the most accurate approach in 2024 (and beyond).

Don’t get carried away with c-betting low boards

The most common situation in No Limit Hold 'em is the Button versus the Big Blind, which will be our starting point. When you're the preflop raiser, i.e. the Button, the higher the flop structure, the better the board for c-betting. So, the A high, K high or broadway boards will be naturally good to put pressure on your opponent.

But what about the lower boards? There are a lot of possible combinations of flops, but thanks to the aggregated flop report option provided by Deepsolver, we can navigate through all of the most representative flop structures.

We did so for 60 flop structures in the Button versus the Big Blind scenario on the 40 BB deep, and while on most boards, the IP player can safely c-bet more than 70% of their range, there were a few outliers. Unsurprisingly, all the check-heavy boards included at least two cards lower than 9.

In our case, the most checked-behind boards were 865 with a flush draw, 754 rainbow, A55 rainbow and 752 with a flush draw. Let's look at the first two, 865 FD and 754 R.

For the sake of simplicity, let's force the Big Blind to check (which most of your opponents will probably do) and allow the IP player to use a ⅓ sizing. Under such conditions, the BU should c-bet only with around 50% of their holdings. In such a scenario, the hands you should c-bet include straights, sets, two pairs, many top pairs, overpairs, and combo draws.

The hands that are good checking candidates include some potential give up on later streets (like underpairs to the board) but also hands with decent equity, which wouldn't necessarily like to build the pot, like overcards and middle or bottom pairs.

In our simulation, the BB should check-raise around 16% of the time, assuming they play game theory optimal. You can toy around with this value to adjust the result to what you think represents your average opponent best.

Let's look at the second example, the 754 board with the flush draw. In this case, the GTO strategy for the BU is to c-bet around 50% of their holdings. There's one "but" though. This board structure represents the small groups of boards where the BB should lead about 20% of the time.

Assuming the BB checks 100% (which is very likely, given the population's tendencies), and the BU can use only one sizing, we get a strategy with 63% of checking. What is the reason behind it? The BU is now check-backing more often because the out-of-position player does not lead, meaning their range includes all the nut combos that could lead otherwise.

As a result, the BU player is incentivized to check back more often since their opponent's range is stronger.

Having that in mind, the overall strategy for the IP player is similar to the one on the 865 board; good c-betting candidates are the hand with a lot of showdown value, the best combo draws, and some low equity overcards.

Once again, the checking range consists of give-ups, mediocre pairs and overcards, which hope to realize some of their equity on the showdown.

These two examples represent boards you have to be cautious of as the preflop raiser, as you won't get away with c-betting your range, at least not versus a competent opponent.

Of course, this is only a tiny fraction of the correct continuation betting strategy, but you can use the same logic and tools we used to determine how to react on other boards in the same situation.

With the aggregated reports option and custom solutions provided by Deepsolver, you can sharpen your continuation betting strategy and adjust it to your opponent's likely actions.

Remember, it's not about memorizing the results of the simulations; it's about understanding what led to such results.

If you're not a Deepsolver user, try it with a seven-day trial. If you've already joined our tribe, visit our Discord server and share your experiences with other members!

Today, we’ll use the Deepsolver findings to shed some light on the continuation bet strategy for cash games.

While poker solvers’ output is helpful in almost any poker scenario, it’s especially effective in cash games. The lack of ICM makes the default GTO strategies much more accurate since you do not have to consider additional information (like other players' stack depth or blinds increase).

As you probably know, whenever you're deep in the tournament, the value of your chips will differ based on a few factors (like the value of the Big Blind). In cash games, on the other hand, the outside circumstances are negligible, and the chips you can win are worth the same as the ones you can lose.

If you want to learn more about the importance of the Independent Chip Model in tournament play, we've got you covered.

However, this article will discuss how to approach c-betting in cash games.

Continuation betting strategy for cash games - where to begin?

Once again, we’ve started our study by running 60 flop structures via the aggregated flop reports tool. This time, we looked at the common online cash game situation: the Button versus the Big Blind spot in the six max lineup at 100 BB stack depth.

Let’s double-check the BB strategy first. In the game, you can expect your opponents to play a pure check strategy; in this case, it is (almost) fully solver-approved. Across all the boards we've investigated, Deepsolver chooses to check nearly 96% of the time, which is a clear sign that a check-only strategy is the way to go.

As expected, the strategy for the in-position player is much more elaborate and worth examining closely. In this case, we’ve allowed the solver to choose between checking back, using a ⅓ or ¾ bet, or going for a 160% overbet.

The results for over 60 different flop structures are as follows:
check: 27.9%
bet ⅓: 48%
bet ¾: 17.8%
overbet: 6.3%

Remember that when working with solvers, you should not treat these frequencies as rules set in stone; consider them guidelines for what is theoretically correct and what is not.

Let’s start with the least used sizing, which is also one of the most interesting: an overbet.

When should we consider overbetting in the single raised pot?

The overbet is a sizing rarely chosen on the flop, yet in our report, there are a few boards on which solvers love to bet very big. Why is it so? We’re going to write a piece devoted solely to the topic of overbetting, but for now, let’s highlight two main reasons for overbetting on the flop:

• inflating the pot allows the in-position player to get their stack in the middle more “smoothly” on the river (without betting twice or more than the pot);
• there are a few board categories where the in-position player has such a significant advantage in both EV and EQ that it validates using massive bets.

Let’s look at the math behind the first reason; typically, if you’d go for a triple barrel using roughly a ¾ sizing, you’d end up with an SPR of ~2.5 on the river.

In that case, betting on particular streets looks like this: 4 BB into 5 BB on the flop, 10 BB into 13 BB on the turn, and you end up with an 84 BB stack and 33 BB pot on the river. Even if you bet the exact pot amount on the flop and the turn, the pot on the river will be 45 BB, and the stack will equal 78 BB.

However, if you start with a 160% bet on the flop (8 BB into the pot of 5 BB) and bet ¾ on the turn (15.75 BB into 21 BB), you’ll end up with a stack-to-pot ratio of 1.4 (74 BB stacks with 52.5 BB in the pot), which makes the allin much more natural option compared to the 2.5 SPR we’ve started with.

Additionally, if you follow the flop overbet with a full pot bet on the turn, you’ll end up with a river SPR of close to 1!

As you can see, betting a few blinds more on the flop can tremendously impact the strategy and bet sizing on the later streets.

Now, let’s look closer at the boards in our sim where overbets occur most frequently: AK9 with a flush draw to a King, AK8 with an Ace and a King in the same suit, AJ9 with a flush draw to a Jack, AJ2 with an Ace and a Jack in the same suit, and KQ3 with a King and a Three in the same suit.

What do all of these boards have in common? They all contain two high cards (by high card, we consider a Ten or a face card) and a flush draw. The high cards aspect results in a strong equity lead for an in-position player having a considerable nut advantage (the Button’s range includes all the sets and most of the two-pair combos), while the out-of-position player lacks the very best hands. As a result, the Button has between 56 and 60% equity lead in each case, which also translates to an advantage in the Expected Value area.

Whenever you bet big on the flop, you increase the cost of chasing flush draws (the out-of-position player is supposed to have no raises in their strategy, and in a few cases, they should fold the weakest flush draws to overbet on the flop), and sets you up to fold many of them on brick turns. Additionally, betting big allows you to leverage your advantage: the value part of your range gets paid, and if your opponent does not defend enough hands, your bluffs print money.

When to bet ¾ or ⅓?

According to our sim, the ⅓ is the most preferred sizing - the solver chooses small bets almost half the time (48%), and the ¾ pot bet is the second most popular (17%). However, playing a multi-bet strategy requires experience and knowledge, so if you prefer, you can simplify your strategy for certain types of boards to only one sizing with occasional overbets.

What does the GTO strategy for c-betting small and big look like? The boards Deepsolver prefers to bet with a ⅓ sizing are QQJ with a flush draw, AAQ with a flush draw, KJ2 rainbow, A97 rainbow, and three paired boards KK8, JJ7 and K77. What do these boards have in common? They are either paired, disconnected or both.

As a result, the out-of-position player has a lot of natural folds (hands that have no connection with the board, which you can expect your opponent to fold 100% of the time) when facing a continuation bet. Let’s look at the QQJ board; against a ⅓ sizing, the BB should fold around 42% of the time. In reality, you can expect even more folding equity since some opponents won't defend some hands they theoretically should (like some of the worst Ace highs). Additionally, it’s also very unlikely for your opponents to find enough check-raises, which increases the EV of your c-bets even more (allowing you to maintain the betting lead in the hand and realize more equity on later streets).

While your range maintains an equity advantage on paired flops, you need to be aware that on such structures, the Big Blind player will have many trips in their range, allowing them to take aggressive lines more often. The small bet makes more sense whenever your opponent can check-raise you aggressively. You force your opponent to fold some hands and keep the pot relatively small when you face an aggressive response.

What about the ¾ sizing? The preferred boards for this sizing are AJT rainbow, J86 rainbow, AQJ with a flush draw, JT6 with a flush draw, and 333. On such boards, IP has all of the nuts in their range, which the out-of-position player lacks, but they still have many strong holdings (like top pairs) that they need to defend.

Let’s look at the first example, AJT rainbow. On this structure, the BU player crushes the BB both in terms of equity (60% to 40%) and EV (3.9 to 1.1). Despite that big of a difference, the BB still has a lot of hands that they can’t fold to a single bet (mainly top pair and pairs + draws), and that’s where most of the IP player EV comes from.

High, disconnected boards (ideally with two high cards) are ideal for pressuring out-of-position players, forcing them to call a lot with mediocre holdings.

When to check back often?

Unsurprisingly, the overall strategy for the Button versus the Big Blind is aggressive. However, there are boards where you should check a lot. The most frequently checked boards include AJ4 mono, 865 with a flush draw, and 754 with a flush draw.

As is often the case with mono boards (our findings were similar for MTT scenarios), you should be very selective with c-betting on such structure. Generally speaking, the Big Blind has a lot of flushes in their range (since they defend so wide preflop) and as a result, a lot of mediocre value hands (like second pairs or weaker top pairs) refrain from betting on such boards. It prevents the OOP player from check-raising and keeps the pot under control, which makes it easier to realize the full value of fragile holdings by reaching the showdown.

What about the 865 and 754? EV and EQ leads are the smallest on these two boards for the in-position players. It’s typical for condensed boards with multiple straight possibilities. On such boards, it's the Big Blind, whose range includes all of the nuts, which forces the Button to check back a lot to prevent check-raises.

The second category of highly checked boards is the ones you should overbet. What’s the reason? It might be counterintuitive to bet either very big or none at all. The betting strategy on such boards is usually very polar - you bet very strong hands (which benefit from the opponent putting more money into the pot) or bluffs (which benefit from the opponent's fold).

What about the in-between hands? You check them since they are usually either way ahead or way behind, so you don't mind giving your opponent a "free card", controlling the size of the pot and allowing the OOP player to bluff.

Time spent on learning the c-bet strategy is well spend

Take your time in studying the correct c-betting strategy. Whether you're a cash game player or MTTs are more of your thing, c-betting with the right hands should be your bread and butter. If you study this aspect, you’ll be surprised how poorly your opponents play, and exploiting your opposition will be much easier than you think.

Deepsolver allows you to learn much more than c-betting strategy, but it's the best place to start. Is it a tool for you? Try it out for a free trial. Want to know more? Visit our Discord server!

Continuation bet (or c-bet for short) is one of the most common actions you perform at the poker table. Despite its importance, many players do it mindlessly, on autopilot. Since it's one of the most used plays, developing a correct c-betting strategy is crucial. After all, even tiny mistakes repeated often will add up, resulting in a big hit to your overall win rate.

What is considered a continuation bet?

Let's start by clarifying the basics: what conditions must be met for a bet to be considered a continuation bet? Most of the time, the c-bet is a flop bet by a preflop aggressor. If you raise preflop and one or more players call, you place a continuation bet if you are the first person to bet on the flop.

It doesn't matter how many opponents you face or whether they are in or out of position; as long as you are the person who raised preflop, your bet will technically be a continuation bet. At the same time, your flop bet will not be a c-bet if you've limped preflop. Also, if you were the preflop aggressor, but someone bet before your turn to act, you won't be able to c-bet any more.

Most of the time, we'll talk about a c-bet whenever you made a preflop raise and the Big Blind called. In fact, the most common spot in all the poker formats is the heads-up between Button and the Big Blind.

That's why it is one of the best spots to start your study with a poker solver.

Why do we c-bet?

That's a fundamental strategy question, yet many poker players have not thought much about the logic behind c-betting it in-depth.

The basic principle behind any betting is that we bet money (or chips, for that matter) whenever we assume we're more likely to win than to lose. Translating that to poker, players will bet more money on the hands they like and when they believe they can win at the showdown (of course, assuming the poker players we refer to are rational).

So why do we c-bet? Whenever a player raises preflop, they put more money into the pot, suggesting their hand is stronger than the average. If anybody else calls as well, it means they had a chance to put more money into the pot, but they didn't, so the hands of calling players should be weaker than the player raising preflop - at least in theory.

Since around 2/3 of the time, the community cards do not improve the hole cards of any player (assuming heads-up), the preflop aggressor "should" have the stronger hand on the flop; therefore, they continue to bet.

Poker strategy behind the continuation bets

The above explanation is descriptive and suitable to picture the overall idea behind continuation betting, but you should understand two crucial poker strategy terms in this context: range advantage and nut advantage.

Whenever we talk about a particular hand and assess board texture, bet sizing or other circumstances, the most efficient way to come up with a good strategy is to visualize all hands players can have at a certain point of the hand - which we refer to as ranges. Usually, the range of one player is stronger (meaning it has more equity) than the range of the other (or others), which we call a range advantage.

Let's take one of the most common spots as an example: the Button vs the Big Blind, 25 BB deep. Whenever the player on the Button raises on such a stack depth, and the BB player defends, the raising player's range will be stronger on average - meaning it will have more equity. The reason is simple: in such a configuration, BU will have all of the best possible holdings in their range (including all pairs and the best Ax and Kx hands) while the defending player (BB) will lack the best preflop holdings, additionally having a lot of weak hands like high/low combos or low suited cards.

If we compare the equity of the default ranges for that situation, the in-position player will have around 60-40% equity lead in this scenario.

The flop may and will change things

Of course, different flop textures can change the range advantage. Continuing with our example, since the BU player has all of the Ax combos and all the broadways, the flops with high cards will favor them greatly, extending their range advantage.

For example, on the AT9 rainbow flop, the BU player's range advantage will extend to almost 68%. However, on the 765 with a flush draw, BU's advantage will shrink to around 51%.

The second board interacts with the wide Big Blind range much better - the out-of-position player has quite a few straight combos, along with all combos of two pairs (many of which are absent in the BU range).

While the BU player still has a positional advantage and a tiny range advantage, they lost the nut advantage. The nut advantage reflects which player’s range has more combinations of nuts (usually two pairs, sets, straights or better). In the case of the 765 board, the BB player can have almost all of the possible nut combos, while the IP player lacks some straights and two-pair combos.

The concepts of range advantage and nut advantage apply not only on the flop but on every street. These terms are vital to the proper poker strategy, and you should reevaluate them on every street before you decide to bet or check.

Betting is usually a good idea whenever your range maintains a range advantage on the flop. However, you should be more cautious if your opponent has just gained the nuts advantage.

When to c-bet?

Back in the days, when the poker game was more about feeling that solid theory, the answer most poker players would provide would be "Pretty much always". And we can't blame them; a few years ago, the population was so bad at defending versus a 100% continuation bet strategy that you could get away with it.

However, the development of poker tools and poker software, along with the GTO poker studies, broadened our knowledge and drastically changed how we view continuation betting. Nowadays, you have to be smart about it; c-betting mindlessly will work against less aware opponents, but the better ones will start to reraise your continuation bets relentlessly.

With the help of Deepsolver, you can get a clue about what to do and adapt it to your strategy. It'll take some time, as this subject is broad; after all, there are around 19,000 possible combinations of flops. Luckily, we can categorize the flops into groups with similar characteristics, narrowing them to a more manageable number.

For example, the continuation bet strategy will be similar for AK2 and AQ7.

Whenever you think about a continuation bet, you have to consider a few more factors, like your opponent's tendencies or how much folding equity your bet can generate. While those variables will change, the guidelines for a continuation bet or checking will stay the same.

So, which flops are the ones that you should c-bet more often? The ones favouring your range as the preflop aggressor, meaning they improve your range and nut advantage, or at least they do not swing it into your opponent's favour.

Let's assume a heads-up hand the Button versus the Big Blind. Which flops hit the aggressor and extend their range and nut advantage? The most prevalent categories of such flops are high-card heavy, like AK2, AKT or AT2. On all of those flops, your range has all of the nuts combinations, meaning a solid number of your holdings will be value bets (you have all of the sets, two pairs and a lot of top pairs with good kickers; your opponent, on the other hand, will lack the sets, and two pairs most of the time).

The same logic applies to the paired boards as long as the paired card is high, for example, AA2, KKT or QQ5. On such boards, your opponent will have many trips but will be short of the best combos, like AK, AQ, and KQ, because most of these hands have 3-bet preflop, meaning you'll have all the nuts that your opponent will not.

Another category favourable to the preflop raiser is disconnected boards, like T62, J73 or K84, especially without flush draws. Such boards favour the player that raised preflop since their opening range will include a lot of pocket pairs and high cards, which will like to be the best hand postflop, especially versus one opponent.

When not to continue betting?

While generally speaking, it's better to c-bet than not, there are situations (and coordinated boards) which are very tricky to navigate as a preflop raiser, and it will be a major leak to approach them without a plan.

When should you be very cautious about c-betting?

The most prevalent cases will be middle, coordinated boards, like T98, 987 or 765. You'll lack the best nut combos on such flops since you often won't be opening hands like 43, J7, and T6s, meaning your range won't include many straights. On the other hand, your opponent will likely have all of the nuts, and even their weaker hands will often improve to a draw or a pair.

You should apply similar caution when board pairs, but the pair card is medium or low, like 554 or 733. In such cases, your opponent will have many more trips, and your trips will also be limited to the very few combos coming from Ax hands and suited connectors.

Another thing that should deter you from c-betting automatically is whether there is a straight possibility. If the board structure enables straights, the opponent on the Big Blind will likely have the nut advantage (in the form of all possible straights), meaning they can approach such a board aggressively.

Be careful c-betting out of position

What about continuation bets out of position? Here, things got even more tricky. When you c-bet against the Big Blind, the circumstances favour you: your preflop range is stronger, and you will have position during the whole hand. Things change a lot when you play out of position.

Let's say you open from the Middle Position on 40 BB, the Cutoff (covering you) calls your raise, and the rest of the players fold. In such a case, you have to be quite cautious. Let's take the AT2 board texture (which is very good for an aggressor in the BU vs BB scenario), for example. Even though your range should still be more robust, the poker solver suggests betting only 1/4 of the time!

What's the reason? Although your range still has almost all of the possible nuts, the CO range is much stronger in this case than the BB range would be (Cutoff's flatting range is way more Ax-heavy; it also includes less weak hands). The positional advantage will also allow your opponent to realize more of their equity.

While it is only a single example, the principles will be similar, and whenever you play out of position, you'll have to continue betting less frequently.

Multiple opponents equal fewer c-bets

Multiway pots are one of the most complex spots in modern poker. We have quite a good grasp of how to play heads-up poker, but even adding a single opponent makes the game tree drastically more complex. However, assuming you're not a high-stakes regular, the multiway pots (often including several calling stations) are probably your bread and butter, and you must devise a proper strategy.

The concept you should follow is simple; the more players in the pot, the stronger hand you require to c-bet. While a single continuation bet is enough to win a heads-up pot in position quite often, it won't be the case against multiple opponents (especially if at least one of them has a position over you). The best way to adapt, especially on lower stakes, is tedious but practical: tighten up.

Whenever you're in a multiway pot, adopt a tight strategy. Use only your strongest hands and the best semi-bluffs as continuation bets. While such an approach may be far from theory, it is much easier to implement and will save you many tough spots.

What about the continuation bet sizings?

So, now that you know when you should c-bet a lot and when you should be much more selective, let's look at the c-bet sizings. Different players have different approaches, but we believe you shouldn't implement a multi-sizing strategy without a good reason.

In fact, you can use a single bet size strategy most of the time, especially if you are not yet aiming for high stakes. The key concepts to understand are whether you should c-bet in the first place and which bet sizing is most suitable for your range.

A good c-betting strategy is a must for a solid poker player

If you want to move up the stakes, you must accurately assess when to c-bet and when not. Luckily, with the help of modern poker tools, it's easier than ever.

In this article, we've only highlighted the most important aspects of continuation betting, but it's a great starting point for your own studies. With the help of Deepsolver, learning how to act in the most common spots will be easier than you think.

And if you hit a dead end, our community is here to help. Join our Discord server and discover how our community makes the most of Deepsolver!

If we were to ask a broad spectrum of poker players about the most significant differences between multi-table tournaments and cash games, we'd probably receive various answers. However, the more experienced our respondents were, the more likely we'd receive a "lack of a postflop rake" (which changes the ranges more than you might imagine!) and the "existence of ICM" as answers.

In this article, we'd like to examine what ICM is and how it should influence your decisions.

What is ICM, and why is it so important?

Independent Chip Model (ICM) evaluates the value of chip stacks in tournament poker. When you play in a cash game, any chip representing 1 dollar is worth exactly that much. After all, you can stand up from the poker table and exchange all the chips for the dollars they represent at any point in time.

As you probably know, the same "conversion rate" is not true for the tournaments. Why is that?

Imagine you play cash with nine friends on Friday night. Everyone bought in for $100, and you were so fortunate to have won all the chips there were to play for. Since no one wanted to play any longer, you'd start the weekend with the $ 1,000 in your pocket.

What if you mixed things up a little and played a 10-man $100 buy-in SNG with an a traditional payout structure (50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd)? In that case, if you'd be lucky enough to win, you'd end up with only $500 despite achieving pretty much the same feat.

When you're playing tournament poker, your winnings are capped by the first prize amount (which, in our example, is 50% of the total prize pool), which influences the optimal strategy. While unlikely, you can theoretically win all the chips at any cash game. The same cannot be said about poker tournaments.

Subsequently, while the $1 chip is always worth $1 in the cash game, the value of the same chip will change during the different stages of the poker tournament.

Chip EV and $EV

To underline the differences in the value of chips in the two formats, we use one of two terms: Chip Expected value and Dollar Expected Value (or cEV and $EV for short). The cEV is used almost exclusively for cash games and reflects that the external circumstances in the game you are playing almost don't affect your decisions.

In other words, whenever you're facing a decision in a cash game, stacks of other players that do not participate in the hand don't matter as their sizes do not affect what you should do. The chips you win are worth roughly the same as the ones you lose, so you should make decisions based primarily on your odds of winning the hand.

In tournament poker, the value of your chip stack is affected by a few factors, e.g. how much of the total prize pool is still in play or the size of other chip stacks. At the very beginning of the tournament, the $EV of your chips is very low, but it steadily increases with the eliminations of other players.

The importance of the $EV and its distinction from the cEV is most prominent when you end up on the final table. There, the value of your chip stack and ICM strategy will differ significantly depending on the other stacks.

You have to respect the ICM pressure

What does it mean? In tournament poker, the lower your chip stack, the more valuable your chips are. It's a result of the fact that as the tournament progresses, you can earn money by folding. Whenever someone else busts, you profit, not even playing a hand or risking your chips, which is a feat impossible to achieve in cash games.

This phenomenon is most impactful during the final tables. Nowadays, an average tournament poker player is at least aware of the existence of poker ICM, but back in the day, people burned money left and right due to their lack of knowledge of how valuable their chips were.

For example, imagine you're a middle stack (around 30BB), and five other players are still in the game, all much shorter than you, except for a chip leader on the big blind. You open the CO with a pair of nines, and the action folds to the BB, who shoves against your raise. While it would be a snap call (or close to) according to cEV (i.e. without the ICM considerations), it becomes a tough decision (leaning towards the fold) when the ICM is in play!

Where does that difference come from? The presence of short stacks allows the big stack to bully the medium stacks (in our example, you) relentlessly. When you are in the middle of the pack, your tournament chip stack is valuable and fragile at the same time. You should be very risk-averse and wait for a few smaller stacks to bust out, guaranteeing yourself a pay jump or two. Quite often, it will be correct to pass on a profitable spot (in terms of earning chips) just because it's more beneficial to give shorter stacks a chance to bust.

Of course, the influence of the ICM is usually more subtle than this, but recognizing its strength is one of the most essential skills for every tournament player.

Independent Chip Model in practice

Calculating ICM influence quickly is not easy, but over time, you can familiarize yourself with it to a point at which you can roughly estimate how it should influence your strategy in real-time.

Let's picture it by extending a simple example we've used earlier. You're playing an SNG with a standard prize pool distribution (50%/30%/20%), and four people are left at the table. There are 10,000 chips in play and $1,000 to be paid out.

Let's see how the ICM value of stack sizes changes under different circumstances.

Example 1.

Let's assume the somewhat likely chip distribution, where chip stacks equal:

• You: 5000
• Player 2: 2000
• Player 3: 2000
• Player 4: 1000

In this scenario, each of the stack's worth would be (assuming the prize pool of $1000):

• You: $370.18
• Player 2: $243.3
• Player 3: $243.3
• Player 4: $141.7

As you can see, despite your stack being five times as big as the short stack, it's "worth" only 2.5 times as much in $EV! As we've said before, the short stack's value (~14% of the total prize pool) is much bigger than their share of all the chips (~10%).

Let's look at another, more extreme example with stack sizes as follows:

• You: 7000
• Player 2: 1000
• Player 3: 1000
• Player 4: 1000

In this scenario, each of the stack's worth would be:

• You: $431.67
• Players 2,3 & 4: $189.44

So, despite having a commanding chip lead (almost 70% chips in play), your stack's value is about 86% of the first place and 43% of the total prize pool. On the other hand, every other stack is worth 18% despite each having only 10% of chips in play. This time, however, we're pretty sure the metagame would be different since none of the three shorts would like to bust, given how relatively easy it is to outlast at least one other player and make it to the money.

Of course, "in real life", there are countless potential ICM scenarios. You can't master all of them, but with the help of an ICM calculator, you can get a grasp of how you should evaluate your chips $EV during the final table of a poker tournament.

You can toy around with the ICM poker calculator on the HRC site: https://www.holdemresources.net/icmcalculator

It's also worth noting that poker ICM is especially evident in satellites with multiple seats, as it doesn't matter how many chips you have as long as you finish ITM.

Quite often, the Independent Chip Model is the basis for deals in poker tournaments. How does ICM deal work? The remaining players receive the current prize, and all of their chips are then valued according to the ICM model, which dictates how the remaining prize money is allocated.

What's often surprising to many observers is that the chip lead is worth less than expected, and the opposite is true for the shorter stacks. That's how the ICM calculations work, which we've tackled in the examples above.

The ICM poker model is not flawless

While very useful, the Independent Chip Model is far from perfect. Its biggest flaw is the fact that it only takes into account the current situation on the table. When the tournament reaches the final table, each player's skill is crucial for realizing their stack's $EV — no ICM calculator accounts for that.

That's something you should always have in mind. How to include it in your poker strategy? A good rule of thumb is to be more risk-averse when you feel your opponents are worse than you and are likely to make big mistakes. At the same time, when you are playing against very tough competition, you'll likely have to make a stand and pick each, even slightly profitable, spot you'll encounter - sometimes, you won't have the luxury to not follow ICM poker.

The other thing that the Independent Chip Model omits is "the future". ICM doesn't care about what would happen in the next hand. It assumes that the game ends here and now and shows you the numbers that reflect that. While it may not always be that important, there are cases (like being on the Big Blind next hand or the level going up) that may make a difference. Also, the way ICM works does not care much about the stack distribution (i.e. who got a positional advantage) - which often heavily influences what you can and cannot expect to happen.

Lastly, whenever you consider playing for your tournament life, you must consider how the potential double-up would position you among the other players' stacks. Would it make you a chip leader who can exert additional pressure, or the playability of your stack wouldn't change much?

As you can see, there is a lot to digest regarding ICM poker. What's the best way to do so and improve your skills?

Use poker tools and focus on ICM calculators to help yourself outsmart your opponents.

ICM calculations — Which program to use?

Several programs help you understand ICM, but two are more popular than others: Holdem Resources Calculator and ICMizer. Both these poker tools work similarly and provide you with quick ICM calculations.

Their most important and commonly used function is providing unexploitable push/call strategies under ICM conditions. Which hand to push and which to call to avoid an "ICM suicide"? The constant development of these apps allows you to run more complex scenarios but even studying the basic ICM simulations will improve your tournament game.

In summary, if you play tournaments, there's now way around it - knowing how the Independent Chip Model works and how it should be applied is a must.

Mastering ICM poker is a key to doing well in the tournaments

But even the best ICM knowledge won't help if you're making post-flop blunders. Preflop knowledge is a solid foundation, but it is the postflop where you can generate the biggest edge against your competition.

Among the poker software that can help you improve your understanding of postflop complexity, Deepsolver is one of the best. Our tool will deliver you accurate GTO strategies quickly and effortlessly. See how it works for yourself now with the seven-day trial.