The isolation play is an essential part of any hold’em players arsenal. In this article we’ll walk you through how to use it, when to use it and how to know when you should abandon the play.
Protecting marginal hands. Playing multi-way pots can be a tricky proposition for players to work with. This is where the isolation play come into focus, and can help protect your strong, but vulnerable hands that don’t want to see any more action or cards. Take J10 on a J106hh board; you have top two pair, but half the deck gives your opponents in the hand flushes, straights, or better two pairs than yours, so the more money you can get in on the flop to protect your hand and take advantage of your equity in the hand now, the better off you are. The more money you can get in now, the better, so take a look at the players in the hand and the position of the preflop bettor before deciding whether to make a standard bet or go for the check-raise to isolate. It’s a big mistake to go for the check-raise and have your opponents all check, giving multiple players huge odds to make a better hand against you. So, unless you think there’s a 90% or better chance that someone will fire a bet, just make the bet yourself, but make it pot sized; and if you check-raise, make the check-raise pot sized, as well; the higher percentage of your stack you can get in now, the better.
Isolation. Other times, you may want players in the pot, but still want to isolate somewhat against hidden hands like gutshots and backdoor draws. You can make an isolation raise against a bettor and a caller in an attempt to squeeze the caller out of the hand and slow the bettor down for the remainder of the hand, ensuring the control of the hand goes back to you more often than not; it also gives you a chance to win the pot right then against your opponents, but by isolating against a single player and taking control of the pot, you have many more plays and a better chance at winning the pot as a whole than simply calling and keeping your opponent in the lead for betting and leaving the caller in to potentially suck out on you. Pick the medium-strong strength hands to isolate with; two pair, small flushes, bottom end of the straight, hands that don’t want to trap, but are strong enough to make a raise with; this is the prime time to isolate against your raiser and gain control of making the pot the size of your choosing the rest of the way.
Understanding when the isolation play has failed. The trick with making an isolation play is to protect a vulnerable hand, but it also should tell you very quickly if your vulnerable hand is actually the worst hand; if you raise an opener with 56 on a 569 rainbow board, and the original bettor decides to go all in, you should really consider folding your hand if the player in question is a tighter player; you announced to the opener that you wanted to protect your hand, and he said, “Uh, I’m sorry, but I think I have the best hand.” Too many players won’t think about what type of hand the player would be willing to three bet with here and just happily stick their stack in, running head first into 99/96/78. Would your opponent really three bet with AA/KK here? If so, stack off, but remember; the goal of a protection bet is to protect what you THINK is the best hand. If someone tells you otherwise, it’s wise (and profitable) to listen to them.
Expert advice has to be followed because they are your well wishers in the true sense because isolation play has to be dealt with carefully without resorting to tactics that are associated with smaller ventures like bandarqq or Situs Judi but if you really want to place bigger bets, then its better done so at the earliest because the one with the biggest hand can only become the winner and winners take all.
Jennifer is a cat lover. You will always find her enjoying poker games while her cat sits on her lap. She is also a tech wizard and wishes to move into a completely AI controlled home.
