Isolating plays can be incredibly effective. Not only are you taking the initiative in a hand but you’re doing so to give yourself the very best chance of winning in an inflated pot. Always stay aware that whenever you make an isolating play you’re subjecting yourself to higher variance and bigger swings, which can go both ways. However, as long as you keep a tight read on the game the upswings should far outweigh the down.
An isolation play is made by raising, anything from a min-raise to an all-in, to narrow the number of opponents in a hand. There may be have been a single raise, a raise and a number of calls (this kind of isolation play would be called a squeeze) or just a single limp. If you pick your spots by judging situations and, more importantly, weighing up your opponents, you’ll give yourself some fantastic chances to scoop a lot of juicy pots.
Why isolate?
When you’re raising to isolate you’re invariably doing it for one of two reasons. Either you’re raising because your hand plays better heads-up (most pairs, for instance) or you’re raising because you want to isolate a specific player, against whom you think you’ve got an edge for one reason or another. You will also normally end up with position, unless someone comes over the top, and that gives you a huge edge. Yes, you may end up having to give up when you get check-raised by a relatively straightforward opponent on the flop, but the number of smaller pots you scoop will more than make up for it.
For instance, if you have notes on an ABC player that you know only raises premium hands from early position and always limps small pairs in an attempt to hit a set, then you have a perfect target to isolate. After all, they’re going to miss their trips 88% of the time if they limp-call looking to set-mine. A raise here, maybe 4-5 big blinds, will see them pass many of their random K-T or 6-8 limps and only flat-call their small pairs. A continuation bet on the flop will see them muck their hand in most instances and if they call you can slow down… until you turn or river a monster!
Read Part 2...