Why is equity denial so important?
Dara O'Kearney shares why 'betting for protection' is not an outdated concept, especially when shallow stacked or multiway.
In an episode of our Chip Race podcast we discuss a study hand with online MTT crusher Bryan Paris.
In the hand we have Q J in the Big Blind in a limped pot against the Small Blind, 20 big blinds effective.
Fast forward to the turn and the board reads T 5 2 Q. With about 10.6 BBs in the pot with about the same behind, the solver advocates shoving all-in most of the time with this hand.
This bet was for value and also to deny equity. This led myself, Bryan and my co-host David Lappin to discuss the merits of betting for equity denial, which is to essentially bet to stop somebody sucking out on us (or at least charge them to do so). There were some gutshots on this board, an open ended straight draw with 43 and other hands that could make better pairs, two pairs, sets or flushes.
Deny equity when short or multiway
Equity denial used to be called a 'protection bet' and it fell out of fashion after it was overused online. Players would protect their hands so much they never got any real value out of them.
Denying equity is important though, especially at short stack depths like the example we discussed. If we have, for example, 80% equity then it means that 20% of the time the Villain will get there. If we can shove and make them fold we can win 100% of the pot right now, rather than 80% of a future pot.
It's particularly important at short stack depths because the money in the middle of the table represents a big portion of our stack. Winning a 10.6 BB pot when you have 10BBs behind is a massive result when you are shallow.
It's also important multiway. There are lots of multiway spots where you are up against two or three opponents with a small amount of equity each, but between them they have a combined equity of 40% against you. None have a hand strong enough to call you but letting all them see a free card is a disaster
You can get Dara's free book on poker study when you sign up to his newsletter.
