Frequent Strength

The most foundational factor in determining whether or not to ISO a limper is how often our hand flops well. The frequent strength of a hand can be divided into two potential qualities: ability to flop good pairs and ability to flop good draws. The former is more important as Hero can expect to flop considerably more good pairs than good draws mathematically, and, in general, pairs are preferable hands to flop in these situations. To put it another way, Hero should prefer to isolate with hands that score reasonably well in Good Pair Potential (GPP) and Versatility (V) from chapter two.

The idea is that provided Hero's hole cards regularly give him strong holdings on the flop, fold equity and good position are less crucial, where as, if Hero's hole cards usually flop poor hands then, for his ISO to be +EV, he'll need the fold equity to frequently win the pot unimproved and will have more need for the benefits of being in position.

Excellent frequent strength is an absolute factor that can justify an ISO without any help from the others at all and this is represented in the triangle by it being the only rectangular shape. The other two factors might make the situation even better, but they do not need to be scrutinised where Hero has very good frequent strength.

AA has the most frequent strength possible as it will flop, at the minimum, an overpair on every texture. This hand is so good that it will simply never require any help from the other points of the triangle. In this case, we can consider the triangle automatically full, solely of red frequent strength.

Let's compare the frequent strength of some less obviously amazing pre-flop holdings.

This hand has excellent frequent strength and will rarely need any help from the other factors to make an ISO the best play. Even where pre-flop and post-flop fold equity is limited and Hero is out of position, this hand's brute force ability to flop dominating top pair hands will render it a fine ISO. We want to build a pot and get the hand HU where possible where its top pair great kicker hands will be even stronger.

Another fine candidate for ISOing. Even with poor position and limited fold equity, Hero can

consider his triangle more full than empty due to frequent strength alone. This hand has two high cards that flop high caliber pair hands (otherwise known as TPGK - top pair good kicker) and can make very strong draws like powerful flush and straight draws.

This is another hand that will very rarely need any help from the other factors. This hand flops either overpairs or a frequently best underpair a lot, and thus can make it to showdown as the best hand quite often. It also has the latent potential to flop a set approximately 1/9 times when a third T comes down.

This hand is considerably weaker. While it frequently makes decent top pair hands, the kickers are more easily dominated and it lacks any good draw flopping potential. This hand is nevertheless a clear ISO in favorable situations but will require the other factors not to be too negative.

A hand of similar frequent strength to the last. While it lacks the second big card to boost its top pair flopping ability, it makes up for this deficit in its ability to flop draws to the nuts. Also note that any hand containing an ace grants more showdown value when it misses the board and provides an overcard to any non A top pair that Villain can flop.

This hand has similar frequent strength to the two above. It can, on occasion, flop an over-pair or a decent pair depending on the texture, and has the latent set flopping potential of any pocket pair. There are, however, many flops where it flops poorly and it therefore requires some help from the other points of the triangle to be a good ISO.

This hand makes up for its lack of high card value with its ability to flop equity in the form of draws.

In fact, it's not even horrible at making top pair with two medium cards. It has decent frequent strength, but like the hands above will need a favorable situation in order to ISO.

Now we're into the realms of fairly poor frequent strength. These hands will require a substantially more favorable situation in terms of fold equity and position to qualify as +EV ISOs.

And now our frequent strength fills so little of the triangle that the vast majority of the work will need to come from the other two points.

And finally we reach the bottom of the pile. Frequent strength is the only factor of the three that can render a hand ISOable on its own. This means that a hand like this one is almost never going to be good enough to isolate with either poor fold equity or bad position, but could qualify if both of these other factors are exceptional. For example, Hero has a +EV ISO with this holding where he is in position against one limper who has a propensity to limp and then fold to raises pre-flop or play very fit-or-fold post-flop and where there are no other active or aware players left to act behind.