The Online Poker Player Resource

The “Gap Concept” was created by David Sklansky, one of the greatest poker theorists of our time. This is a basic concept used to guide any good player into making the correct choices in any poker game. The “Gap Concept” states that a player should only call a raise with hand that is better than the one that a player would raise with if he were the first person to bet. Specifically the “gap” in this concept refers to the distance in quality between the cards a player first to put in a raise is holding and the cards you are holding. When comparing cards to a person who made a raise before you, if this person was a tight player, the gap between his cards and yours would be quite large. If it was a player who tends to be loose, then the gap is smaller.

Let’s use the following example to explore the “Gap Concept.” You are in middle position and are 4th to act in a pre-flop betting round. The person under the gun raises the big blind. Then the person after him re-raises. The third person to act folds and it is now to you. According to the “Gap Concept” in order for you to truly justify a call here, your hand must be amazing. This is why. For this hand, lets say you have KQ suited. Before it was your turn to act there was a raise and a re-raise. According to the gap concept, the person who re-raised must have a better hand than the player who acted under the gun. So in a sense, your requirements to call this re-raise just went even higher. Imagine if they were tight players. For tight players to have bet this early in position, they must be holding some top pocket cards. KQ in your position is good enough to make an initial raise in middle position but not call a re-raise. This is a fold.

All the professionals agree that if you study and apply the “Gap Concept” correctly, you will save money in the long run.