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

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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.

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

This week we’re focusing on a common spot where you are out of position against a tough opponent on the Button after they opened to 2.5BBs and you called in the Big Blind.

In this scenario, the Button has a wide uncapped range while you have a wide range that is capped since you would 3-bet most of your stronger holdings. Since you have a relatively deep stacked situation where you are also at an overall range disadvantage, you will start most hands by checking to the preflop raiser by default.

It is critical to not simply give up in this spot too often. Your strategy will include a combination of check-calling to defend using hands with reasonable equity and showdown value. In addition, many of your strong hands and weaker draws such as backdoor flush draws without a pair or ace high should be in a check-raising range.

This is also one of the scenarios where it makes sense to lead on some equity changing turn cards. Stacks are still somewhat deep and your opponent is likely to continuation bet a very wide range of hands. On equity changing turn cards they will often be checking behind so you can combat that by leading with a balanced range of semi-bluffs and strong made hands (such as top pair).

Since the Button will be betting such a wide range on the flop, when they do check back the turn their range will often be capped and still quite wide. To benefit from this you can bet rivers more frequently after they check behind both for value and as a bluff. Value can be quite thin with hands as weak as second or third pair often being worth a small bet.

Late position versus Blind play is the “bread and butter” of tournament play. Mastering these spots is crucial if you want to maximize your ROI in multi table tournaments over the long term.

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 Big Blind Call Vs Button Open pack by clicking here or to play more scenarios just like this use the Trainer Refine Filter to sort by Big Blind Defense, Tournament, or 50BB, select a pack, and click START SESSION!

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

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