What is Your Edge?

by Taylor Caby


Even though I primarily play poker in some of the highest stakes games on the internet, I see
players make many basic errors. sually players develop holes in their game !hile they are
playing at the lo!er stakes games, but they can overcome them to remain a !inning player
because the competition they play makes even more mistakes than they do" These same players
!onder !hy they repeatedly lose as they move up to the higher limits, but the simple truth is that
they are making more mistakes than their opponents. In an effort to help players aspiring to
move to the top of the poker ranks, today I am going to discuss a concept I have coined# your
$edge.$ It is important to note that the concept as a !hole is nothing ne!, but I haven%t seen
these principles presented together as a basis to guide to all decisions at the poker table.

&irst, I must define the !ord $edge,$ as it applies to playing !inning poker. The simplest !ay to
understand this term is to think of it as your advantage in a given hand over the other players you
are playing against. &or purposes of this article, I !ill only discuss your edge as it applies to
making the decision of !hether you should fold, call, or raise your hand preflop. This concept
applies to every decision you !ill ever make at the poker table, but it !ould be very complicated
to discuss in one article.

&or e'ample, your edge could be simply that you hold better cards than your opponents. It could
also be that one of your opponents is on tilt and you are not. You could be in better table position
than your opponent, or you could be against a player that understands ne't to nothing about the
game. You also may have no edge !hatsoever on your opponents in a given hand, in !hich case
the obvious decision is that you should fold (this is an oversimplification as there are times you
!ould play a hand in !hich you don%t have an overall edge, but !here the future benefits you gain
from your opponent being misled about the !ay you play makes the play !orth!hile). *n the
surface, this concept is very easy to understand, but it should be noted that like almost all other
concepts in poker, higher level thinking complicates things greatly.

I am no! going to discuss some of the primary sources of your edge at the poker table and ho!
you can !eigh these factors into !hether or not you should play your hand, and also ho! you
should play it. I !ill list them in their order of importance and then discuss ho! to use them in
con+unction !ith each other.
,) Your cards are better than !hat your e'pected opponents have.

The most important edge you can have over another player at the table is the fact that you hold
better cards than he does. If you consistently hold better cards than your opponents and can play
even close to as good as they do after the flop, you !ill !in money in the long run. If you gave an
average player pocket aces every time and -hil Ivey +ust about anything else (as long as they
both didn?t kno! !hat the other held), I don%t think anyone !ould suggest Ivey could !in.
.) You have better table position than your e'pected opponents have.
-osition is king in no/limit hold%em. If you are on the button, you act after everyone else does.
You have added information about the other player%s hands, !hich allo!s you to make better
decisions about ho! to play your hand. These better decisions lead to profit in the long run. To
illustrate this point, assuming only t!o players see the flop, I !ould rather have 0ce 1ing on the
button than pocket nines on the cutoff. 22 is a slight statistical favorite to 01, but I !ould rather
take the slight underdog !ith a positional advantage. 0ssuming pocket nines raises in late
position, I !ill probably re/raise on the button. It is likely that he !ill flat call my re/raise in this
situation. I !ill make a standard .34 ? 435 ?continuation? bet on the flop, and he !ill likely fold if
any of the follo!ing cards come on the flop# 0, 1, 6, 7, T. 8et%s assume none of these cards are
on the flop (even though most of the time one of them !ill appear), most players !ill +ust flat call
my continuation bet on the flop because they are scared I may hold a bigger pair. In this case, I
still have si' true outs on the turn and can bluff a !ide variety of other $scare$ cards. This
e'ample oversimplifies things a little bit, but you can see that by combining a solid hand !ith
good table position, you are still better off than a slightly better hand !ith bad table position.

4) Your table image !ill mislead players into making incorrect decisions against you.

When most people play poker, they can%t help but make observations about the players they are
playing !ith. nless they are paying no attention at all to the game, they !ill at least notice !hich
players are raising a lot of hands and !hich players are never in a hand. If you are playing
against players that don%t notice these things, this rule may not apply, but don%t !orry, you should
be doing +ust fine !ithout it in a game like this.

There are a variety of !ays your table image can mislead your opponents. The easiest !ay to
use your table image to your advantage is to play solid poker (raise good hands, don%t bluff very
often, etc.) for a long period of time and then suddenly change your style of play. -layers !ill give
you credit for your old table image, and you can usually bluff them a fe! times before they !ill
ad+ust their perceptions about you. This !orks especially !ell if you are making a lot of good
hands and !inning big pots !ith them. *ther players !ill see your solid hands and !ill simply
stay out of your !ay, and then you can start to raise more marginal hands, because you probably
!on%t face much resistance from your opponents.

The opposite is also true. If you are playing many hands and your opponents catch you bluffing,
you can take advantage of this as !ell. When you do pick up a very strong hand, play it even
more aggressively than you normally !ould. You might make a raise that is larger than the si9e
of the pot, or even move all your chips into the pot in some cases. The point is you are playing
differently than you normally !ould to take advantage of the fact that players perceive you as a
very loose player. In this case, you !ant them to think you are bluffing, so you play a hand as if
you !ould !ant them to fold.

5) You are much better player (after the flop particularly) than your e'pected opponents.
This rule must have a disclaimer attached to it. I hear many players say things like $I played :;s
because of the implied odds if I !ere to catch a big flop.$ <o!ever, I also notice these same
players going broke !hen the flop comes ..; and their opponent has an over pair. If you are
going to play speculative hands against other opponents, be sure that you are an e'perienced
enough player to kno! !hen you are likely beat, and to =E>E? unnecessarily lose a big pot !ith
these hands.

If you are playing against opponents !ho are considerably !eaker than you, you can get a!ay
!ith consistently playing @8IA<T8Y !orse hands than they are. You might raise !ith some more
speculative hands, in order to e'ploit the fact that they !ill never fold top pair (!hich you !ill beat
from time to time, and you understand ho! to ma'imi9e your return !hen you do). If you have
any doubts as to !hether you are a better player than your competition, tighten up your starting
hand reBuirements and play more strong hands.

:) You hold some other miscellaneous edge over your e'pected opponents.

Ciscellaneous edges come from a variety of different factors. Your opponent might be tired from
playing a very long session. <e might be playing D tables at a time and be unable to possibly
keep up !ith your changing table image. <e might have lost a big pot (possibly even at another
table that he doesn%t kno! you are !atching) and start to go on tilt. There are a variety of !ays
that you can e'ploit these different situations, and it is up to you to decide +ust ho! important
each one is. Typically the most significant source of edge in this category is if a player is on
mega/tilt.

EEE
=o! that you kno! the order of importance of some of the most important sources of edge at the
poker table, you must learn ho! to correctly e'ploit them. I !ill no! briefly describe some of my
recommendations#

/Edge F, is far and a!ay the most important edge to have. If you consistently have better cards
than your opponents (and they are still seeing flops !ith you), you !ill make money.

/If you don%t have edge F, in your favor, you should have 0T 8E0@T t!o other sources of edge in
your favor. &or e'ample, I !ouldn%t mind seeing a flop against a player I kne! probably had
better cards than me, as long as I had edge F. (table position) and edge F4 (favorable image) in
my favor. If I also kne! that I had edge F5 (I am a much better player after the flop) in my favor, I
!ould love to be in this position against the other player repeatedly. =o!, this is assuming your
cards aren%t consistently terribly !orse than your opponents. &or e'ample, even !ith every other
edge in the !orld on my side, I !ouldn%t !ant to take .Go up against 00.

/You must stay a!are of ho! your different sources of edge change during each session. In
particular you must keep an eye on !hat types of hands your opponents think you are playing.
You can go from being pegged as a very tight player to being loose aggressive to being on tilt (in
their eyes) in a matter of only a fe! hands.

/I%ve said this earlier, but I !ant to emphasi9e, do not overestimate edge F5. This edge should be
considered in addition to, not in place of, the other edges that I have listed.

/There are many other miscellaneous edges that are e'ploitable in poker. I encourage all of you
to look for them yourself and incorporate them into your game.

EEE
This is the first time I have !ritten about this concept, even though I have thought about it for a
long time. I think there is room for advancement of this concept, !ith the possibility even of
developing a mathematical formula !hich calculates !hen it is correct to play a hand. I !ould be
interested in discussing this concept further if anyone is interested.

I hope this article !ill give poker players a better idea of the frame!ork successful players use to
decide !hen and ho! they should play their hands. ntil ne't time, I !ish everyone continued
success at the tables"