Your EV loss tells you exactly how much this spot is costing you per hand. The strategy below will show you why.

The way we measure our performance against the Trainer is by tracking "EV loss," or Expected Value Loss. The best possible result after you pick your action is an EV loss of 0. This means your action breaks even against a perfect player.

When EV loss isn’t 0, the number shown is the amount of big blinds that we would lose taking a specific action in the long run.

It is possible to make a poor play (high EV loss) that results in you winning a specific hand. You’ve all seen players make bad plays and win the pot or make the right play and lose the pot. Over time EV loss will track closer and closer to actual losses.

We only care about EV loss, we don’t care whether or not we win any one particular hand.

This allows us to have a long-term mindset towards poker that focuses on the quality of our decisions and not short-term results.

Learn the Strategy Behind These Hands!

In this scenario we're playing at a Final Table with a 30BB stack. Given the pay jumps and the presence of a 10BB and 12BB stack, you are strongly incentivized to not bust out at this point.

One of the first things to note about this spot is that the Stack to Pot Ratio (SPR) is extremely low. There are 17.5BBs in the pot and only 22BBs left in the effective stack, making for a very shallow SPR of 1.25 to 1. This fact, along with the real money considerations, should alter your play quite a bit compared to deeper-stacked spots.

With strong one-pair hands on the flop, you should often consider raising all-in after your opponent c-bets on coordinated boards. This strategy protects your hand and doesn’t allow cheap turn cards for your opponent and is especially important to the one-pair hand that is more vulnerable to overcards.

With good draws such as an open-ended straight draw or flush draw, you should often play passively to avoid busting out. All-in semi-bluffs with draws should generally be avoided when there are multiple shorter stacks at a final table with significant pay jumps.

When your opponent checks to you on the Button, you can often take stabs at the pot with a variety of hands. However, you should avoid calling all-ins without hands with high equity. The ICM pressure of this spot dictates that you should fold to an all-in with marginal hands.

You should only float with hands that have strong board interaction, blocker effects, and multiple ways to win. When you do float, be prepared to take stabs on the turn when you block strong hands.

Join for $5 and keep drilling this spot until making the right play is automatic then move to the next leak.

New to the GTO Trainer?

Here are some tips when practicing with the Fearless GTO Trainer:

• Your goal is to select the action for each individual hand that is as close to 0.00 EV as possible.
• EV Loss of 0.00 is the same action a GTO player would take.
• 0.00 EV loss means you broke even against a GTO player.
• EV Loss Color Coding Hint:
  • Green = Near GTO Play
  • Orange = Take Caution
  • Red = Leak in Your Game

See how close you get to 0 EV loss and high-percentage plays, then reread the advice above from the Fearless River Pros.

Members Play More Hands From This Spot

Not a member yet? Join for $5 to access this pack plus other tournament, final table, cash game, and heads up scenarios.

Fearless River Members can play more hands from this 30BB Button Call Vs 50BB Big Blind 4x 3-Bet pack by clicking here, or to play more scenarios just like this, use the Trainer Refine Filter to sort by Final Table, select a pack, and click START SESSION!

If you have any questions regarding this scenario or your results, send them to our Instructors via the Ask a Pro feature.