Stop thinking of hand strength, start thinking of pockets of equity

Dara O'Kearney says you are overfolding powerful hands just because they are likely behind on the flop.

This is a common spot most players new to solvers struggle to comprehend. UTG has opened off of 40bbs, the BB defends with K♥Q♥ and the flop is T♥6♣2♠.

The BB checks, UTG bets pot with this range:

This is the GTO response from the BB, as you can see our specific hand flat calls:

UTG has a strong range overall, and some players really struggle to call with a hand like K♥Q♥. It doesn't even beat Ace high and it seems fishy, especially against a big size. Our hand has 33.5% equity against the UTG range. 

Pockets of Equity

A modern way of thinking of your hand, which is useful, is to consider your hand to have different pockets of equity that make it playable.

It has a small amount of showdown equity against the bluffs in the range, which is most of the King-x, Queen-x, Jack-x etc.

It has an OK amount of one pair equity against Ace-x and the pairs Jacks and below, if a K or Q come on the turn or river. 

It has a small amount of runner-runner equity against almost all the opponent's range. Our hand can make a straight, flush or straight flush by the river. 

K♥Q♥ also has a small amount of semi bluff equity. Our hand starts to bluff on low turn cards which are good for our range, and check/raise bluff on really good cards for our hand like the J♥. 

Finally, our hand has some good blocker bluff equity if we can check down to the river. Our hand blocks hands like KK, KT and QT which call most rivers. 

The human way to approach this hand is to tell yourself you are likely behind and fold, but that's not the way a solver thinks. A hand like ours is usually behind, but it is not a million miles behind and is very robust. It has lots of small ways in which it can still win the pot. 

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