What is not edge?
“I work harder and more than others.” Great, but you can work more and harder, yet unproductively. You can calculate ranges and equities with a pen on a piece of paper by multiplying and dividing in your head, or you can use PokerRanger or a similar program and do 2 hours of work in 5 minutes.
“I better control my emotions/bankroll/lifestyle” and so on. I do not deny the benefits of emotional stability, bankroll management, and a healthier lifestyle, but it is very difficult to objectively assess, let alone compare with others. “Isildur1” certainly did not excel in emotional stability, safe bankroll management, or sufficient sleep hours, yet for a long time, he was considered the best cash games player at the highest limits.
Imagine two people of the same experience, build, and physical preparation, ready to fight to the death. What tool could you give one of them to affect the outcome of the fight? More sleep before the fight? More willpower and desire to win? Maybe. A knife would certainly tip the scales to one side, a gun even more so. Edge is the skills and tools you have that your opponent does not, not a life philosophy. Let's move on to specific examples so that this does not become just another philosophical read about poker.
Low stakes edge – strong theoretical foundation
Example No. 1
When I asked the question “What makes you better than others?” I did not add “than players of your or lower limits” in parentheses for no reason. Having context makes it much easier to specify examples. For instance, you play 2NL and are an average player there. Everyone will win or lose all-in with a set over set situation or after 3 barrels on the river catching a lower flush. Your game will not differ from other players, so there is no edge here, and the day's result will depend on how you fared in these situations today.
However, maybe you read your first poker book and learned that raising pre-flop is much more profitable than limping. This is your edge, a specific tool you have and use that other players do not. Perhaps the book also included a chart indicating which hands can be raised profitably and which cannot. As long as you play somewhat similarly post-flop to other players, these two tools are more than enough to be one of the best 2NL players. Playing with these tools for two months will make you a better player than someone who has been playing for six months without them.
Example No. 2
Another example, 10NL is the limit where people seem to know that ranges exist, but not much more. Sticking to the same pre-flop example, more or less everyone knows that you need to open raise and that sometimes you can 3-bet. What a 3-bet range looks like or how much (let's not even delve into “why”) you need to defend against 3-bets is unclear. It is based on intuition, which helps choose hands that seem good for that. When working with players of these limits, I never start with complex, higher-limit balanced ranges, exceptions, and strategy variations. Correct ranges, this time already printed on charts, and understanding what, when, and how much to 3-bet or call against 3-bets practically doubles the win rates at this limit.
You always want to be able to identify specific situations where and why you play better than others at your limits, and as you move up the limits, it is important to find out what your opponents know that you do not. Specifically and clearly. A 10NL player who has not sorted out pre-flop ranges and plays “by feel” is doomed to fail among 25NL regs.
Higher stakes edge – situations unfamiliar to regs
Another important thought for players who already have more weapons in their arsenal – force your opponent to play in less familiar territory. Pre-flop edge is the easiest to understand, as there are fewer variables, but post-flop edge can and should be identified just as precisely.
One of the important skills is flop defense. This means that you should be able to identify (50NL) exactly which hands from your range you defend against a c-bet. An example could be a situation BBvBU, when we call a pre-flop open, the flop is K86 with a flush draw. We get a 50% size continuation bet, we call with all flopped pairs, all draws (including gutshots), as well as some strong hands with backdoor flush draws (e.g., AJs, ATs, A5s, QJs), this is more or less enough to defend a sufficient part of our range. All 100NL regs will know quite precisely what and how to defend against a 50% size, as they solve and study these situations. 25NL regs will play more intuitively and are likely not to defend with enough backdoors. If I know this and they do not – that is my edge.
Situation No. 1
One of the situations I still use in my limits is a great example of how to force your opponent to play where the edge is on your side. At 100-200NL, everyone studies single-raised pots, and expecting big mistakes there is naive. In the BBvSB situation, a reg at these limits knows perfectly well what to 3-bet and what to call against an SB open, post-flop against usual sizings they have been thousands of times and feel comfortable. The situation changes drastically when the SB limps. Now you need to know what to isolate with, how to play against limp/3-bet, what the BB range looks like when he checks, and finally, how to play post-flop with such a range. It is not surprising that post-flop play changes quite drastically, as both positions' ranges become much wider, meaning you need to defend with significantly weaker hands, the bar for value bets also drops significantly, in summary, it is unfamiliar territory where the opponent is forced to guess. If I have studied this situation and my opponent has not, the edge grows exponentially.
Situation No. 2
The last example I want to share happened at a live cash game table. I remember this situation very well because the opponent's reaction then sparked many thoughts about Edge and its precise use. There was only one recreational player at the table, the other 5 were regular players of different levels but still regulars in that environment. I opened 97s from the CO position, got a call from the BB. The flop was K86r, I c-bet 1/3 of the pot. Turn 3, which brought a flush draw, BB check. I c-bet 1.5x the pot. The player from the BB laughed out loud and quickly folded his hand, expressing the opinion that my line was inadequate, non-standard, and probably always done only with a very strong hand. The player was one of the better regs at that table.
Before even dealing a new hand, the player's face changed and he seemed thoughtful, likely realizing that it was not just random sizings, but a pre-worked strategy that he was seeing for the first time. The next couple of times he faced the same line from me, although he folded, the reg took much longer to consider his decisions and “guess” what my range looked like. From a theoretical standpoint, although the EV difference between usual sizings (say 2/3 on the flop and turn) and 1/3 on the flop – 1.5x overbet on the turn is not big, one of these variants the opponent saw for the first time, meaning while I know exactly what the ranges look like in this situation, the opponent is forced to guess – this creates a significant Edge.
The benefit of understanding Edge for improvement
Time to summarize and give meaning to this article. The tools that increase edge could be listed endlessly: knowing exact defending ranges against c-bets on different boards against different sizings, better bluff hand selection (most bluff when they just decide “now”), balancing check-raise ranges, thin value bets (everyone will bet for value when they have 90% against the calling range, this creates no Edge for anyone, but you can find situations where you make a thin value bet with 54% equity, and your opponents do not) and so on.
The most important thing is to be able to identify them. Qualities like self-criticism, work ethic, emotional coolness, and so on are excellent qualities needed for a successful poker player, but you will not have a way to objectively weigh and compare them with, say, higher limit players when thinking of moving up. Edge is not an abstraction, a general belief that I will make better decisions on average than my opponent. It is the precise knowledge of what mistakes they tend to make and how exactly I can exploit them. When you start looking for such niches, a whole new understanding of poker and the potential to improve quickly and effectively will open up to you. More poker strategy can be found here.
Paulius Žulonas recommends playing BestPoker
