Should we ever put opponents on specific hands or just ranges?

I read somewhere here never to put opponents on hands, only on ranges? Why is this? Sometimes I feel that there could only be one or two hands an opponent plays in a certain way and act accordingly, but if I put him on a wider range including less likely hands then my decisions may be different.

My question is can we ignore the less likely hands and put him on the most likely hand and act on that?

Because when you put them on only one or two hands you're likely overestimating your reading ability, unless you've played them quite a bit and they are too simple to mix up their play at all.

The best way to understand it is to read some analysis by multiple people of a given hand and just look at what ranges people put an opponent on given the reads and situation, and also read where people tak about "balancing" thier own range, where sometimes they do one thing and sometimes they do something else, then look at that same situation from the outside and you can see that the range isn't just one or two hands for these players. But, that's not the players at the micros doing that balancing.

btw, Do you play $10nl FR at Stars under the same name? I was sitting a couple tables one day and noticed someone with TAGgier than normal stats and I thought I recognised your name.

I do lol what was your' name? I play at around 13/11 - 15/13. Did I look nitty?

Ninelions.

You didn't look nitty, just your VPIP and PFR were too close together for $10nl. In other words, suspciously like someone who knew what they were doing, which made me suspicious. Isoraising limpers, and a couple of 3 bets preflop. Not what I was seeing from the rest of the two tables that I was on. That was my first time at $10nl since Black Friday but your stats stuck out.

If you put them on one hand, that is a range

ranges are the same as specific hands, if you put him on a a specific hand, that is his range

And after that, just pick up the credit card and blame variance.