The gap is a highly controversial concept, first introduced by renowned poker author David Sklansky, which is nowadays considered quite obsolete by many of the new generation players who base their approach on aggression topped off with a little more aggression. When it comes to the gap concept though, the truth of the matter is that it is based on a fundamental poker truth and as such, it can’t possibly grow obsolete over time, as long as the rules of the game remain the same. The way you incorporate the gap concept into you general strategy is different though, and that’s what can grow obsolete: the way you use the gap concept.
 

The gap is meant to express the difference between the strength of the hand that you would open raise with and the strength of the hand that you would call a raise with. It’s quite simple really, and its explanation is relatively easy too, especially if one understands the fold equity, because that’s the factor that induces the whole gap-idea.

Let’s consider the following example: you’re holding A,Jo in a late position and the hand gets folded around to you. This one’s a no-brainer: the table is basically begging for you to fire out a bet. If you’re sitting in the same position, holding the same hand and a player in early position raises into you, all the data concerning the situation changes radically. Your A,Jo loses a lot of value for several reasons. First of all: the fact that your opponent considers it fit to fire out a raise from early position, means he’s probably sitting on a true monster. That makes your hand infinitely weaker than in the previous scenario. This guy thinks he’s got a hand that’s probably the best one at the table. A hand like A,Jo is an easily dominated hand. Your hand is dominated when your highest card is the same as that of your opponent but your kicker is weaker. That means the odds are stacked against you and you do not really want to be involved in that hand.
 

The very reason why Sklansky has introduced the gap concept was to help people avoid playing such dominated hands. What’s really twisted about playing a dominated hand is that you’ll probably end up paying a lot of money to find out you were wrong in the first place.

Another explanation for the gap is the fold equity. If you’re a tournament player, you probably know that when you’re about to take a coin-flip for your tournament life, you’re better off shoving than calling. That’s because if you’re the one initiating the move, there’s still hope you’ll win the pot by forcing your opponent to fold. You can also win by simply winning the showdown, which means you have two ways to win the hand. The guy who makes the call can only win by winning the showdown. That there’s called fold equity and it explains the gap concept probably better than anything else. Because he is the one who initiated the move, your opponent can win the pot by making you fold or by winning it hands down. You only have one way to win, and you need to compensate for that odds-difference through hand selection.
 

The gap is by no means something rigid: you need to set your own gap based on the reads you have on your opponents. If you’re up against a loose-aggressive player, you can toss the gap right out the window. This is probably the reason why the concept is considered dated by many.

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