Poker Strategy Hand Range Selection
- Poker Range relates to a set of hands that either you or an opponent might hold in a particular situation. So, instead of thinking of one holding like J♣10♦, you would include several hands in a range. For example – K9s, Q9s, J9s, etc. – is part of a poker range of hands. This concept is what we call a range in poker.
- How to Break Up Ranges Based on Strategic Options. Let’s suppose that you’re facing an all-in bet from a single opponent and you want to use the 0, 1 model to represent your range. You’re going to have a calling range and a folding range, and the calling range should be stronger than the folding range.
Starting Hand Ranges and Factors Affecting These Ranges The ways a lot of people justify the hands they choose to play can be summed up in two words – hilariously awesome. We’ve heard people mention that they play hands because they’re their favorite hands, because the hands have some really cool and fun names, or that they saw someone. By developing a solid preflop hand selection strategy, you’re setting yourself up for post-flop and overall success in poker. Listen to episode #255: The Best Poker Hands Ranked and Open-raising Ranges.
When you bet the flop, you force your opponent to fold some hands. This makes his range narrower and stronger than it was previously. When you bet again on the turn, Villain is again supposed to fold the weakest his weakest hands, leading to a further contraction in his range. By the time you reach the river, having bet both the flop and the turn, and having been called, Villain will hold a high concentration of made hands above a certain strength and no air apart from maybe missed draws. Therefore, it would make no sense for you to bet the river with medium strength hands. If you did that, your opponent would simply be folding the missed draws and anything worse and calling only when he has you beat. This is the definition of a bad bet. It is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. Either nothing happens (he folds) or you blow your brains out (he calls with a better hands). There is nothing to achieve by making such a bet.
Understanding Polarised Ranges
A polarised betting range is one which bets with either strong hands which expect to be a favourite if they get called and weak hands which can make a lot of Villain’s better hands fold. These notions are more commonly referred to as ‘value betting’ and ‘bluffing’. A polarised betting range bets no medium strength hands. It does not bet any hands with the sole purpose of denying equity to the worse hands in Villain’s range. For example, on the turn after c-betting the flop we do not bet JJ on A64K. Even though we could deny a little bit of equity to a hand like 88 by making it fold with two outs to improve, this is not a trade off in our favour. JJ is not a value bet, nor is it a bluff, so we check because we want to bet with a polarised range here when Villain has called a flop bet and strengthened his range. We bet this turn with Ax+ for value (like AJ for example) and bluffs that lack showdown value such as QJ.
When Villain calls your bet, the quality of hand you need for value betting on future streets goes up. Your range should become more and more polarised as Villain’s range gets narrower and stronger.
Playing Against a Polarised Range
Against a polarised range we want to raise rarely because Villain has defined his holding as something either very strong or very weak. We would gain little by raising against the nuts and we do not need to raise to beat a bluff. Raising against a polarised range, then, normally just means paying extra money against Villain’s strong hands and making an unnecessary play against a bluff. We have all chuckled (good heartedly of course) at the rank beginner who states that he is raising a pair because he thinks his opponent is bluffing. It is possible to have some raises against a polarised range, but we would want to be raising an even more polarised range ourselves. If Villain’s range is extremely polarised, for example when he over-bets the turn, we usually just want to play a call or fold strategy because we have so little to gain by raising against either the nuts or air.
Identifying When Villain’s Range is Polarised
A competent player will usually be polarised if he:
- Bets big on a later street
- Raises a flop bet
- Raise the turn
- Raises the river
- Over-Bets the pot
- 3-Bets from the big blind
But a weaker player might not be polar even when he takes these actions due to having a poor understanding of why he is betting.
Understanding Merged Ranges
A merged betting range is one that contains medium strength hands as well as stronger hands and bluffs. These medium strength holdings can be hands like thin value bets or vulnerable made hands which are betting to deny equity to some weaker hands in the opponent’s range. It is often correct to bet with a merged range on the flop when Villain’s range is very wide and unfiltered. For example, when we c-bet with AQ on a flop like 855 we are betting with a merged range. This hand is not a clear value-bet since it is not ahead when called, nor is it a bluff since it folds out no better hands. The gain from this bet mainly comes in the form of making Villain fold worse hands which have two live cards. We call this gain ‘protection’ or ‘equity denial’.
It is possible to bet with a merged range when Villain’s range is still very wide, but as he starts to tighten by calling your bets, it is important to switch to a polarised betting strategy.
Playing Against Merged Ranges
A merged betting range contains many fairly weak hands, medium hands, and fairly strong hands. As a result, and in contrast to playing against polarised ranges, there is a lot of incentive to raise aggressively vs. a merged range. We can raise more thinly for value because Villain can be bet/calling some quite strong hands that are weaker than our hand. Moreover, we can expect bluffing to have a reasonable expectation with the right holdings because Villain can be bet/folding some quite weak hands that would beat us at showdown.
The more merged Villain’s betting range is, the more merged our raising range can become.
Identifying when Villain’s Range is Merged
A competent player will have a merged betting range when he:
- Bets a smaller size on the river (this will still be polarised to some extent bit more merged than if he had used a large bet.
- C-bets the flop small.
- Raises pre-flop on the button.
- Calls a bet
- Checks when he could have bet
Weaker players might have merged ranges when they take more aggressive actions than these.
Conclusion
The main ideas, in summary, is that more aggressive actions should denote more polarised ranges and that we should play more passively against polarised ranges and more aggressively against merged ranges. Join me for episode five of this series where we shall discuss identifying and attacking capped ranges.
When making a postflop decision, it's important that you think not just about what poker hands your opponent could have, but also about your own range. Think of the strongest hand you can have in a given spot. Think of the weakest. Now look at the hand you actually have. Where along the way does it lie?
If we think of the times you raise the button, maybe your range starts at pocket aces and ends at -offsuit or -suited. From there we can surmise that defending versus a three-bet with, say, -offsuit is by no means mandatory. We can use a similar train of thought in more complicated spots.
Let's look at an actual hand of online poker from a game of 100NL six-handed Zoom that helps illustrate the importance of reading your own range.
Action From the Start
With the blinds $0.50/$1, a regular sitting under the gun raised to $3 and was three-bet by the cutoff to $9. It folded around and that regular called. Heads-up to a flop in a three-bet pot.
The first three board cards came . The UTG player checked, the cutoff bet $10.50, UTG check-raised to $21, and the cutoff called. On an ace-high board that could hit the cutoff's flop betting range well, strength has been shown.
Where Is Ace-King Now?
The turn card was the . If we think of the cutoff's range, was near the top of it both before the flop and after. But on this turn card, not all combinations can be valued equally.
On the flop, (for example) was arguably the best ace-king of the bunch. Now on the turn that hand is as weak as . Meanwhile , , and all remain near the top of the cutoff's range, while the rest of the ace-king combinations fall by the wayside.
If the cutoff can hold preflop, that hand now hurdles everything to the top. Pocket aces remains strong of course, but no longer occupies the top-of-the-range position.
Preflop bluffs that connected well — e.g., , , or — are substantially diminished on this turn card. By contrast, other hands like and leap forward.
The fact is, every combination moves up or down the ladder depending on what fourth street brings. Only on a , , , or (or the case ace) would pocket aces still be the nuts on the turn.
This consideration of the cutoff's range has very practical consequences for the hand in question. That's because the check-raiser sitting UTG decided to pot it, betting $60 into $60 with $95 behind.
A Line in the Sand
If is no longer near the top of the cutoff's range, as it once was, need he call this pot-sized turn bet with it? The answer is simply no.
The problem with is not just that it is no longer that strong, it also can't really improve — when it is behind on this board it is drawing dead almost always. That means it cannot find any good rivers to call. Think about it — after that flop check-raise and pot-sized turn bet from UTG, which hands does beat on a river? Not sets, not straights, not flushes.
We also see in this instance the value of not three-betting the flop with one's strongest hands, but also with weaker flush draws. If the cutoff had done so, he'd be trying to sort out whether he could really let go of here on this turn. His range would have been unprotected by flushes and straights. Also demonstrated here is the value in three-betting preflop a ranged mixed of high cards and high pairs with suited connectors that can make straights or flushes in this type of situation.
One might argue, though, that to call this bet would not necessarily lead to being pot committed — in other words, that calling on the turn to fold the river is viable. But this is only reasonable if we expect the river shoving frequency of the UTG player to be low after he check-raised flop and potted turn. That's unlikely. It is also needs to be true that can win at showdown on a river check-check, which could or could not be.
Poker Strategy Hand Range Selection Questions
Get to the Point
The cutoff player did call the pot-sized turn bet, then the river brought the — definitely a blank. UTG responded by shoving all in with his set — — and the cutoff called with , getting stacked for a nearly 400-big blind pot.
The cutoff probably felt coolered. Of course, getting stacked with the three combinations that include the would have been much more justifiable — he would have had outs on the turn and would have blocked flushes on the river. Meanwhile could have made this river call unhappily and gotten stacked by straights and flushes, but still win the times UTG flops a set as in this hand.
The point is that had the turn card been the everything would be different for cutoff. But he got married to a hand with the attractive name of 'top pair, top kicker' instead of looking at how that hand fit into the full view of his entire range.
Poker Strategy Hand Range Selection Chart
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