The No-Limit Isolation Play

Don't miss one article! Subscribe to the Full Feed RSS or get NPA in your inbox.

The isolation play is one of the most profitable weapons in the professional cash game player’s arsenal. Yet it is also one of the least understood by most amateur players. Teaching the play thoroughly would take a book, not an article, so my goal here is merely to try to shed some light on the play. You’ll learn to identify it, to understand it, and finally to defend yourself against it.

Spotting The Isolation Play

I recently was playing in a $2-$5 game with a mandatory $10 live straddle. A weak player with about a $2,000 stack sat a few seats to my right. A friend of mine, a very strong professional player, was directly to my right. He was playing about $2,000 also. The weak player raised most pots to $45. About one out of three of those pots, my friend would reraise to $100. Frequently, everyone else would fold, the weak player would call the $55, and they’d see a flop.

After this happened a few times, it became clear that most of the rest of the players at the table thought they were both nuts. She was playing nearly every hand for a raise. He was reraising way too often. No one gets pocket aces that much, right?

 Print :: Trackback :: Respond ::