Gugel’s Fundamental Questions of Poker

Posted on Mar 26, 2009 by Gugel in Poker Strategy

The Fundamental of Theory of Poker should guide every decision you make in a heads up match.

Note: In 6-max and fullring games, Morton’s theory might override Sklansky’s, but this is a HU blog, so we’ll ignore that for now.

Anyway, the traditional Fundamental Theory of Poker by David Sklansky states:
1. Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain.
2. Every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose.
3. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain.
4. Every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.

What it boils down to is that you want to make the same decision you would make if you could see your opponent’s cards.  I know, easier said than done.

To help you out, here are Gugel’s Fundamental Questions of Poker.

Question 1: (Betting for Value)
If I bet/raise, what weaker hands call?

Question 2: (Bluffing)
If I bet/raise, what stronger hands fold?

When I first started playing heads up no-limit, I put these two questions on Post-It notes and stuck them on the corners of my monitor.  Before I made any decision, I would try to answer the questions.  Here’s the thing though.  Only ONE question should have an answer.  That means if you don’t have a good answer for at least one of the questions, you’re doing something wrong AND if you think you have an answer to BOTH questions, you are doing something wrong.  Everytime you are the aggressor in a HU match, one and only one question should have an answer!

What about if your decision is to call or fold?  All you need to do is ask yourself those same two questions from the villain’s perspective.  If the villain bet or raised, what weaker hands is he expecting to call?  What stronger hands is he expecting to fold?

Go ahead and grab some Post-It notes, gentlemen.

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5 Responses to “Gugel’s Fundamental Questions of Poker”

  1. yaqh

    27. Mar, 2009

    re: answering yes to BOTH questions

    meh, sometimes you’ll have like Ahigh or so and you’re thinking about cbetting flop or turn and you’ll find a passive sort of opponent who will continue to check/call with draws but will go ahead and fold, say, bottom pair. this is somewhat backwards thinking on villain’s part, but it does happen a reasonable amount, and is a legitimate spot where you can answer “yes” to both of your questions.

    cheers

  2. Gugel

    27. Mar, 2009

    >>yaqh

    Good point. There are some rare situations (mostly on the flop) when the rule might not completely apply. Generally speaking though, it’s very good idea to ask yourself those two questions (and having an answer for only one) before making any decision.

  3. Primo

    29. Mar, 2009

    lol yea, vegas is gonna be the nuts, we’ll have a house-off vs you+ansky’s house in HU-Anything 4 ROLLZ ;)

  4. Sherlock

    06. Apr, 2009

    You can also bet to cut out your opponents equity in a hand.
    Like say you have 22 against 87 on a 336 board, you have ~60% equity, but you’d still rather like to bet to get your opponent to fold, rather than give him a free card.

    But as a general rule it’s good.

  5. HarrysDad

    30. Sep, 2010

    Had to think about this a bit but I agree you can only answer one of these questions, but that answer totally depends upon your read of their range.

    If I believe they’re on a draw and my A-high is good then I am betting to get a worse hand (or range of hands) to call. If I believe they have a weak pair vs. my A-high then I’m betting to get that pair to fold.

    Since anytime you’re betting (postflop anyway) you’re betting based upon assumptions about your opponent’s range. You believe you’re either ahead or behind that range. As a result you are either bluffing or value betting (and betting to cut their equity is a form of value betting).

    And it’s obvious, although not stated the article, but a bet can change from street to street from value to bluff and back again.