Domination & the logic behind every bet

Domination is one hand being heavily favored against another not merely because it's stronger today, but because some of the cards that IMPROVE the weaker hand improve the stronger one too. Ace-king dominates ace-queen preflop (~75% equity, and both pair their ace into a lost kicker battle); postflop, two flush draws can dominate each other when one fills higher; loosely, ten-ten "dominates" nine-eight suited because even the connector's flopped pair stays behind. A published analysis (Andrew Brokos, GTO Wizard, October 2025) makes domination the lens for three decisions this course treats separately — and shows it quietly drives all of them.

  1. Split the range at domination.Facing a shove or big bet, ask how many combos DOMINATE you versus how many you dominate.
  2. Ignore the neutral middle.Hands that neither dominate nor get dominated barely move your equity — stop agonizing over them.
  3. Choose aggression by who dominates whom.Bet and raise hands that fold out their dominators or get paid by their dominated ones.
  4. Watch the flip.One card reverses domination (a queen for AQ versus AK) — re-classify every street.

Worked example: what actually moves an all-in decision

The analysis prices a tournament spot: big blind holding A9o against a 14bb lojack shove, needing ~44% equity. Adding SMALL PAIRS and broadways to villain's shove range barely moves A9o's equity — those hands neither dominate it nor fall to it, so they cancel out. What flips the fold into a call is adding DOMINATED hands like A7s and K9s: only three combos each (your cards block the rest!), yet they drag the equity up dramatically because A9o crushes them. And adding a few DOMINATING hands — 99, AKs, AQs — drags it straight back down to indifference. The estimate that matters takes one question: does THIS player shove many hands that dominate mine?

The same logic reshuffles preflop raising ranges. The analysis points out why big suited aces 3-bet while ATs–A8s almost never do, yet tiny suited aces 3-bet again: AKs and AQs LOVE getting called by the dominated AJo/ATo/KQo region; middle suited aces hate that the dominators continue while the dominated hands fold; and A2s–A5s raise partly to steal pots from dominators like A9o that would otherwise play perfectly against them. Postflop it repeats: on T♠9♦2♥, the analysis finds ace-jack among the button's favorite stabs precisely because the cutoff FOLDS its dominators (AK, AQ) and CALLS with dominated KJ/QJ — betting a mediocre hand works when the range above it folds and the range below it pays.