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

⏭️ Click Here to Jump to the Strategy Breakdown

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.

Not a Member? Join now ▼ to play more hands!

Learn the Strategy Behind the 5 Tournament Hands You Just Played!

This week we’re focused on a tournament scenario where you are in position against a tough player from the Cutoff who opened to 2.5BBs and you called on the Button.

Your opponent’s range in the Cutoff is very wide but uncapped while your range is significantly narrower but capped, as you would 3-bet all your bigger hands plus some of your weaker holdings. This means that you will have a significant range advantage on most flops not containing an Ace or King, however the Cutoff will still have the big over pairs in their range often giving them stronger hands at the very top of their range even on many flops that favor your range overall.

Since you have the overall range advantage the Cutoff is often going to be checking on the flop. In a deeper stacked scenario it would be standard to take many stabs when checked to on the flop as you have room to apply pressure across multiple streets in situations where their range is capped. With medium stacks as in this hand the Cutoff’s strategy often changes where they are frequently check-raising with a robust range that includes a balance of big hands and bluffs.

Without the benefit of being deeper stacked you will be unable to defend a lot of medium strength holdings with significant showdown value that don’t want to play for all the chips. This dynamic leads to you often checking in position with hands that have equity but are vulnerable to a check-raise.

When the Cutoff does continuation bet, you will often find yourself in prime position to float. For many of the same reasons you are in a precarious position on the flop when the Cutoff check-raises, floating the flop a great play in your spot. Floating the flop and following up with a turn bet when your opponent checks allows you to attack their capped range with a bet that puts a significant portion of their stack at risk. They can (and will) try and balance this out with some slow playing on the turn and you can combat that by also floating some of your bigger hands on the flop and not raising with them.

Being able to properly defend your Button in the middle stages of a tournament will have a huge impact on your overall ROI, and learning to do so effectively will make you an extremely tough multi table tournament opponent!

Here are some tips when practicing with the WPT GTO Trainer:

• Your goal is to select the action for each individual hand that is as close to 0.00 EV as possible
• EV Loss of 0.00 is the same action a GTO Player would take
• 0.00 EV Loss means you broke even against a GTO Player
• EV Loss Color Coding Hint:
  • Green = Near GTO Play
  • Orange = Take Caution
  • Red = Probable Leak in Your Game

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

Play More Hands From This Tournament Spot

LearnWPT.com Members can play more hands from this Button Call Vs Cutoff Open pack by clicking here or to play more scenarios just like this use the Trainer Refine Filter to sort by Tournament, Button Defense select a pack, and click START SESSION!

If you have any questions regarding this scenario or your results send your questions in the Ask a Pro Discord.

P.S. Learn more about our Membership Tiers by clicking here.