The Gap Concept review.

The Gap Concept, described by the poker researcher David Clancy, illustrates the following idea. In order to call the pre-flop raise, it is necessary to have a stronger hand, for the raise itself. As many other poker paradigms, the gap concept instantly took place in poker because of its simplicity. All that was Recommended to the players: to make the re-raise in a narrower hands spectrum than the spectrum that opened the raise. As a result, this made hands range for the tri bet narrower for most players. However, if you have a look at today’s online tournaments with high blinds, you can see that the gap concept suffered visible changes. During the last few years, the pre-flop strategy considerably evolved.
You can enter any big site, open the tournament table and see how players raise and re-raise, sometimes without any reason and quite thoughtless. The game went far away from the gap conception. Players are calling more tightly the pre-flop and flop raises. And of course with the progression a small group of players begin to use the situation for their own good. The success of those players is visible, after that came the popularization of what we can see on the tables nowadays: a hyper aggressive tournament strategy.
With the distribution of the hyper aggression, even the tightest player’s spectrum moved from the norms. Now even in online tournaments the range of the opening raise is paradox to the other’s tri bet. With the spread of new tendencies the online player’s style suffered changes. Often players select hands for the opening raise instead of entering to the pre-flop’s raise in a wide spectrum carefully . They enter the game with really strong hands and let their hyper aggressive players change their places.
As an example, that proofs the changes in the game’s dynamic lately, I’ll show a delivery, played not long ago at the Super Tuesday tournament at the Poker Stars site. A really losing opponent entered the raised from an early position and the player on the small blind played re-raise. I was on the big blind with a pocket pair 10/10. A few years ago that would have be an easy fold against most of players. But, since high limit tournaments transformed into a “who scares first?” contest, with the participation of most of regulars, the gap concept should be used with many changes.
What does that mean and which way poker is developing? It is easier to answer the first part of the question. There’s an interesting phenomenon overall: when some strategy becomes popular, is better to go against it.
Theories, especially those, that I call “unmovable” (most of poker literature), easily lost their actuality. However, from some of those theories we can define where is poker moving to. The player must systematize as much as possible of the available poker theory. First of all to know, which move will be made by most of the others. In this case is possible to fight them effectively and receive the maximum profits.
In the end, theories alike the gap concept create a wave effect in poker, that’s why you always have to be on top and in front of all. Then your expectations will fully accomplish.