Play final tables with confidence
Bencb with a primer on how to use Holdem Resources Calculator and Pairred to crush final table ICM spots.
Most players underestimate the power of ICM and the impact it has on your win rate.
If I had to choose between
- A) a solid early game player but an ICM crusher OR
- B) A early game crusher but a solid ICM player
I would choose A) over B) every time!
I would even argue that player A) not only has a marginally higher win rate, but 2x, 3x or even 5x the win rate of player B).
Stop your GTO browsing madness when you don’t feel you are crushing ICM spots.
You need to know when to attack on the bubble, you know when to be tight, you know when to exploit big stacks, mid stacks and short stacks.
Currently, there are two ways to get insanely good in ICM spots. The first one is with our ICM Tier in Pairrd, and second is studying with HRC.
Studying with HRC has the big advantage of running the sims and adjusting the ranges based on your opponents. If you want to study Final Table situations against specific opponents, then this is the best way. This is how you move up to become a crusher and print money like crazy. You get to learn how to call all ins, what to re-shove and push all in against various player types. In no other stage is adjusting to your opponents as important as on Final Tables.
Tight players become even tighter and more scared, aggressive opponents become even more aggressive fighting for the title. This gives room for massive exploits.
Do you know how to adjust? No?
Did you know that this spot on a Final Table with K7s can be a super profitable min raise spot?
Most don’t. That's why it is important to look up these situations. Adjust the ranges based on your experience and the reads you have on your opponents. Sometimes you will be shocked at how loose or tight you are supposed to go all in or open raise on Final Tables.
Finding these edges is easy and will give you tons of confidence to be more aggressive and win more Tournaments. Most of you are just "waiting" for setups. Being aggressive on Final Tables will pay out in the long term, if you know the spots you need to be aggressive with (same applies for money bubbles!).
What about this spot with A3o? Are you certain whether or not this is a shove, a raise or a fold?
Again with HRC these spots are easy to study and you can run these spots with insane accuracy in just a few minutes. Adjust your ranges based on what you think your opponents or the average player on your stakes will re-shove.
"But Ben, I don’t know what they will do”.
It is not about being perfect. Adjust the responses wider, make them tighter and see how the ranges change. Just by putting in the effort to look into some of these spots and having A ROUGH IDEA, it will put you at the top.
You will make mistakes. Accept it. Just by being more aware than the other players, you will gain a massive edge. Most are clueless, guessing and waiting/hoping for setups. That's not how you crush Tournaments.
Take it slow. Review 2-3 spots a week. It is not a lot of time. But you will reap the rewards very soon. Long story short, A3o is a great exploit to open raise, even on high stakes where a lot of money is at stake!
If you really want to crush, there is no way around studying with HRC.
You might ask, what about Solvers that have pre-set ICM ranges?
Yes, it is okay, but you can not adjust them, you can not find good exploits. You won't find these any2 open raises and all-ins vs weaker opponents. You’ll just be another mediocre player like the others. Crushers analyze their opponents and adjust based on villains and not just on what a solver does.
ICM Pairrd combined with HRC is the ultimate weapon.
We have run our ICM ranges in Pairrd with HRC. HRC delivers the most accurate ICM ranges. It considers the Card Removal effect which takes into consideration that a certain number of players have folded in front of us which increases the likelihood of our opponents behind having a stronger hand (since it is more likely that the players before will fold bad and low card hands over high card or broadway hands). So, the more players have folded the more low cards have been folded, thus increasing the odds of our opponents behind holding a stronger hand. You can paste in ranges from Pairrd and simply start adjusting the responses to see how drastically the ranges can change and the exploits you can make.
I also recorded a Youtube video showing how I adjust and analyze these spots. If you want to learn how to use HRC properly, then watch this video.
Get our unbeatable Raise Your Edge discounts
After an exemplary rise to the top of the poker world, starting out on low-stakes SNGs and grinding his way all the way to the top of six-figure buy-in tournaments, Benjamin 'bencb' Rolle launched his own poker training site Raise Your Edge, delivering world-class poker courses that can help anyone to get their own game to new heights.
No matter if you want to master regular tournaments, perfect your skills in bounty MTTs, boost your mindset, or reignite your career with live cash games—there's something in store for everyone at Raise Your Edge. And with our unbeatable PokerStrategy.com discounts at Raise Your Egde that you will find nowhere else, you will be able to save cold hard cash when taking your game to the next level through the elite poker training Raise Your Egde offers.
Up to $250 discount through PokerStrategy.com
Check out our discount overview for all the available courses and pick whatever game format you would like to thrive in. PokerStrategy.com offers the biggest discounts available at Raise Your Edge:
| Course | Standard Price | Discount | Exclusive Price | Discount Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament Masterclass App | $697 | -$100 | $597 | POKERSTRATAPP |
| Tournament Masterclass Exp | $1.297 | -$175 | $1,122 | POKERSTRATEXP |
| Bounty Beast | $997 | -$250 | $747 | POKERSTRATBEAST |
| Unchained Mind | $597 | -$125 | $472 | POKERSTRATMIND |
| Online Cash Apprentice | $297 | -$50 | $247 | POKERSTRATCASH |
| Mastering Live Cash | $397 | -$75 | $322 | POKERSTRATLIVE |
The best part of it all: There's a money-back guarantee on all the offers available at Raise Your Edge, meaning if you completed a course and done the work, but you feel it provided no value, you can get a refund for your purchase within 60 days.
Pairrd App by Raise Your Edge
While checking out the most popular courses on our dedicated Raise Your Edge page, you should also have a look at their unique interactive studying tool Pairrd that is coming with engaging video quizzes, range drilling and hand review quizzes, all based on the most up to date GTO ranges out there.
An essential part when learning poker is the ability to think in ranges and understand the why behind them. Raise Your Edge does a great job of getting that across to their students, meticulously breaking down ranges and explaining the reasoning behind them.
However, memorising ranges is quite hard, and often the only way to learn is by making enough costly mistakes to see one's errors. Thankfully, Raise Your Edge provides a powerful tool to circumvent that with Pairrd.
PokerStrategy.com editor Barry Carter has reviewed Pairrd and concluded about the merits of the innovative app:
"Pairrd is a unique interactive studying tool that provides something relatively new to the world of poker training, a way to practice spots without having to play them at the tables. It is essentially a dynamic way to make real poker decisions without risking money. Since most of us learn from experience, it's a natural way to memorise the theory from Raise Your Edge."
Exclusive 10% discount with PokerStrategy.com
You can get started with Pairrd from just $50 per month or save $100 with an annual plan for $497. What's more, if you join via PokerStrategy.com, you will get a discount of 10% when purchasing Pairrd. Just use our link below and the discount is automatically applied during checkout:
Save 10% on Pairrd with PokerStrategy.com
Key Features of Pairrd by Raise Your Edge
- Interactive Weekly Quizzes: Comprehensive library of interactive training spots covering preflop, postflop, GTO and Exploitative. Train in-game scenarios so they become second nature at the tables!
- GTO Preflop Ranges: Preflop tournament ranges included that will immediately step up your game. Accompanied with built-in practice functions, Pairrd will make you a force to be reckoned with.
- Exclusive Video Content: To ensure you fully understand the concepts being trained, quick and easy to digest video explanations are included in the interactive quizzes.
- Study With Friends: Practice and compete with your friends using Pairrd, including sharing hands, private leaderboards and a built-in chat function!
Find out more about Pairrd by Raise Your Edge
