How many times have you been playing a tournament waiting for a good hand to play? You sit there waiting... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting...and...oh you get the point. That's one of the biggest problems with poker...the cards don't always cooperate. You must do something to control your own destiny. Applying the Gap Concept by raising first to act in prime stealing situations has two distinct advantages.
First, it lets you maintain or build your stack with minimal risk. Let's say for example that the blinds are 1000/2000 with a 300 ante at a 9 handed table. There is 5700 in the pot before any action. You have 30,000 in chips and raise to 6,000 from the cutoff with 9-4 off. If everyone folds you will have 35,700 in chips. Now, let's say 1 out of 3 times someone re-raises you and you have to fold. Over those three times you will have a net profit of 5,400 (11,400 in wins – 6,000 in losses). If you apply the concept correctly as outlined in part 1, I think winning 2 out of 3 is attainable. Even 3 out of 5 would still make it a +EV play. I'm not even going to discuss the times where you win even more money when one of the blinds flat calls you, checks to you on the flop, and you win the pot with a positional continuation bet.
The second advantage in applying the Gap Concept in first to act situations is it leads people to respect your raises less over time. They know that you are applying pressure. They know that your range of hands for raising could be anything. They are much more likely to play back at you then if you were playing super tight aggressive. How is this a good thing you might be wondering? Well think about it this way... you've waited for that hand. Finally, you get pocket aces on the button. It's folded to you. Yes, perfect! The blinds are going to think you are stealing and might play back at you. You raise. Unfortunately for you, your opponents have been watching. They know that you have not played a hand in an hour. They know that you're probably not stealing with 9-4 off. They fold. You win the blinds and go back to folding for an hour. But what if you had raised 5 times in the last 3 orbits? Then they might not give your raise the same respect. They might push back at you with pocket 5's or two pictures and you get paid for your premium hand. Aggressive play = value for your big hands. It's as simple as that. Applying the Gap Concept will lead to you winning bigger pots with your premium hands.
One last advantage of the Gap Concept is it keeps players out of trouble situations in raised pots. The Gap says you need a better hand to call a raise with than one you would raise with yourself. It forces players to fold hands like king-jack or ace-ten in raised pots. This is a good thing. It keeps a player from having to make difficult post-flop decisions and from leaking chips when they miss flops with marginal hands against players that likely have better hands.
Part I