We are sure you're thinking, "what does my score mean?".

• View The Strategy Behind The Correct Answers Below

The way we measure our performance against the Trainer is by tracking "EV Loss" or Expected Value Loss. The best possible result after you pick your action is an EV Loss of 0. This means your action breaks even against a perfect player.

When EV Loss isn’t 0, the number shown is the amount of big blinds that we would lose taking a specific action in the long run.

It is possible to make a poor play (high EV Loss) that results in you winning a specific hand. I’m sure you’ve all seen players make bad plays and win the pot or make the right play and lose the pot. Over time EV Loss will track closer and closer to actual losses.

We only care about EV Loss, we don’t care whether or not we win any one particular hand.

This allows us to have a long term mindset towards poker that focuses on the quality of our decisions and not short term results.

Learn The Strategy For The 5 Final Table Hands You Just Played!

These hands showcase correct play at the final table of a major tournament with significant pay jumps.

There are two short stacks of 10BBs and 12BBs at the table. You open to 2BBs from the Cutoff with a 70BB starting stack and a tough player in the Big Blind calls with 50BBs.

This scenario is somewhat unique to final table play. The Big Blind is getting tremendous odds to call preflop, making their range extremely wide. The fact that you are the big stack at the final table and they are the second biggest stack, with multiple small stacks still remaining, means the Big Blind is under an immense amount of ICM pressure.

This pressure is so severe that the Big Blind will be forced to flat call preflop with some big hands, including hands as strong as pocket kings. They do utilize a polarized 3-betting strategy preflop that includes AA/AK and some small suited cards, however their range is not nearly as capped as it would be typically in this situation. The big pay jumps incentivize the Big Blind to play more conservatively versus you, as the chip leader, than they otherwise would in a non final table spot.

With the ICM implications of this scenario, you will be continuation betting small virtually 100% of the time when it is checked to you. It would be a huge mistake for the Big Blind to get all-in here with two short stacks remaining. Taking immediate aggressive action often just wins the pot on the spot and when it doesn’t a scenario is set up where you can apply pressure on future streets to win uncontested pots as well.

The Big Blind will try to counter your strategy by calling with a wider range on the flop and then utilizing a leading strategy on the turn with cards that are favorable for their range. This may look like a strong play from your opponent but you should still be taking many hands with reasonable equity to showdown versus this line.

Be cautious building pots that are too large with hands that may seem strong in other situations. ICM pressure is a factor for both you and your opponent. While you can get the Blind Blind to fold many hands they might continue with in other situations, their range is often narrower on later streets which makes it stronger. Hands that might otherwise seem really strong, such as over pairs on a paired board, may not have the same relative hand strength on later streets since the Big Blind is highly unlikely to play a big pot in this situation without a stronger hand.

Utilizing your chip lead to continue accumulating chips at the final table is key to winning poker tournaments. Learning how and when to lean into your opponents versus when you should be focused on a controlled showdown without risking your chip lead takes a lot of practice. Understanding the nuance of decision making with ICM pressure at play will result in deeper finishes and more opportunities to win tournaments.

See how close you get to 0 EV Loss and high percentage plays, then reread the advice above from the LearnWPT Pros.

Keep practicing!
-Team LearnWPT

P.S. LearnWPT Members can play more hands from scenarios like this anytime! Join for $5 your first month to train more hands.