Iso Play

Aditya Agarwal is 26 years old Drexel University BBA graduate and a professional poker player for the past 6 years. He plays online with the alias 'intervention' and specialises in No Limit Holdem Tournaments and has over 3.2 MILLION USD in online tournament cashes and 175,000 USD in live tournament cashes. He is a poker pro at www.pokerguru.in where you can watch his training videos absolutely free.

IsoPlay

Hey guys, I am very excited to be part of the CardPlayer India team and to be writing strategy articles for them. 

India has witnessed a poker boom recently and as more and more people take to the game, I think it is very important to explain the basics. In these articles I will attempt to explain various plays that will hopefully aid beginners and mid stage players in taking their game to the next level. The aforementioned plays are the ones I was fortunate enough to learn when I started playing under the guidance of some of the best in the world of poker.

A disclaimer, I am not a writer, actually far from it, but I will work with the CardPlayer  team to bring you these articles so please do give me feedback and I will try my best to improve on future articles.

In this article I would like to discuss the concept of isolation play. One of the biggest and most common mistakes made by beginners is the attempt to see cheap flops, i.e. flops where there is no or little pre flop raise, as they are under the misconception that any two cards can win. It is this mentality that draws a lot of new players to the game to take a shot at it and try their luck.

The problem with this strategy is that the mathematics of the game are such that it not profitable to see numerous flops with mediocre hands such as A6, A7, K7, K8, Q8, J7, J6, 69, 6T, 58, 48 and so on. Hands such as these are simply not strong enough to win large pots but are weak enough to lose large ones. Beginners specifically should avoid hands like these and as a general rule should not play hands that in their opinion are not good enough to raise themselves. Remember:-

‘If its not worth raising, its not worth limping’.

Most beginners however go against this rule and limp their weaker hands while raising the their stronger hands. If you spot a player who limps a lot on your table, it is fairly easy to exploit this ‘chronic limper’ by following the ‘iso play strategy’.  Iso Play simply means isolating a weak player who is limping weak hands by making a raise to drive other players out of the hand and playing your targeted player one on one, in the event that he calls your raise. The aim behind this is to punish the player for limping. Very often, players such as these are stubborn and will call your raise, but will not continue to play unless they have hit the flop. Further, since they are calling weak hands pre flop, the probability of them hitting a majority of flops is low and a bet from you on the flop will usually be enough to make them fold, thereby enabling you win the pot, larger due to the pre flop raise, with ease.

The iso play strategy can be explained further with the help of an example. Assume you’re playing on a table where the blinds are 100-200 and you have managed to isolate Player A as a chronic limper who simply wants to see cheap flops and many of them. Once he limps pre flop as usual, you raise to 900 (an iso raise), hoping that everyone else folds and you take down the pot. However, even though your aim was to steal the blinds, you don’t mind Player A calling, as your read on him suggests that he limps his weaker hands while raising the stronger ones and since he didn’t raise himself, it is safe to assume that he does not have a big hand and consequently can be made to fold post flop. An isolation raise ideally ranges from 3 to 5 times the limp, which in this example would be between 600 and 1000. However, in the event of the table being dominated by loose players who are willing to call smaller raises pre flop, the ideal isolation raise should be increased in order to prevent other players from calling. Additionally, adjustments should be made according to stack sizes, the deeper the stack the higher the raise and the shallower the stack the smaller the raise (in order to provide yourself with more room to play the hand post flop). Assuming the only person calling your raise is Player A and the flop is K 4 6, a continuation bet ranging from half to two thirds of the pot should be made, knowing that there is a good chance that he has missed the flop considering the wide range of hands that could have been limped by him. The only scenario in which Player A will call the continuation bet is if he has hit the King and even then in all probability it would not be a strong King and therefore the potential of making him fold later on in the hand exists.

Hands like A2, A3, K9, Q9 are all examples of hands that beginners try to see cheap flops with and are also those that don’t flop well.  Typically, when they call your raise they play their hand face up post flop. As a result, a continuation bet is a must as most beginners are not crafty enough to make a move on flops they have missed and will end up folding a majority of the times, making this play very profitable.

For those of you who are wondering what range of hands you should be isolating these limpers with, well the answer is simple. It can be done with almost any 2 cards as the percentage of winning the hand on the flop are very high, both due to the player you have chosen to be your opponent and due to your betting pattern.

Personally, I prefer raising suited connected hands like 45, 67, 89 and so on as these hands are really well disguised when you raise a limper pre flop and are fairly simple to play on the flop. Moreover, I would also be making iso raises with all my stronger hands, which I would be raising for value since I expect the limper to be calling with hands that I have dominated. For instance, if I see someone limping in hands like Q9, K9 etc, I will be making iso raises with a range of hands as wide as KJ, KT, QJ etc so that I can play the hand post flop against this player as I will have him outkicked. 

Hope I was able to explain this play, if there are any questions or clarification please do go ahead and give me feedback at info@theshark.in or  Pokerguru.in 

By: Aditya Intervention Agarwal