Hand Ranges - Help Needed

I've been playing Poker now for about 18 months. I have a half decent understanding for the game. However, it is only till recently I have really started delving into the forums and studying my Poker Tracker alot.

With regards to Hand Ranges, I was wondering if there was a basic 'Rule of Thumb' you used whilst taking into account the players PF aggression . i.e Their PF raise %. Is there any range we put them on. If they have a low % of PF raise we mark them as TIGHT. But then do we put them in for example the top 5% of opening hands ( this is only an example )

Is there a statistic on Poker Tracker which will help me with this?

I do apologise if this seems quite vague and there may be some confusion.

Thanks

You could try using this piece of software. It gives you a hand range for a given % whether that be pfr or vpip or whatever. Most players use this when calculating equity they have in a hand.

PokerStove: Poker Software and Analysis

I already have pokerstove, but what i'm trying to find out is HOW do i come up with that % of hand ranges. Are you saying i use pfr % as a guide or VPIP% for limpers?

I think you can reliably use VPIP as a guide for the % to plug into Pokerstove. So for instance of the villian has a VPIP of 25 then go into pokerstove and plug in 25% to get an idea of his range. Or I could be completely wrong.

scragbag said:

I already have pokerstove, but what i'm trying to find out is HOW do i come up with that % of hand ranges. Are you saying i use pfr % as a guide or VPIP% for limpers?

Click to expand...

Open poker stove and click on one of the player buttons that opens the hand distribution menu. Then click on the preflop tab. At the bottom you should see a slider where you can adjust percentages. I think this is what your asking although I could be wrong.

Maybe this will help you as well - DB Hand Ranger v4 for No Limit Holdem

In theory, an unknown will "know" how to play pre-flop. This means that if he plays 20% of his hands, he'll play the top 20% only.

But one does not have to look very long at that statement to know that it is wrong, very, very wrong. For a couple of reasons:

a) It doesn't take positiuon into consideration. A player in a ring game can have a very high preflop raise % on the button and be nitty as hell UTG. This means that his hand range needs to be adjusted to position. While JTs is a perfectly fine hand to raise with in the CO in 6-max when everybody has folded, I don't know of many players that will do that UTG+1 for example. And if they do, take note and broaden their range.

b) Most poker tracker stats against a player are from a way too small sample to accurately put a player on a range of hands. You can gain a lot of very useful info (meta-game concerns such as overall blind play, if they limp often, if they check or bet postflop most of the time, etc.). This means that you have to take notes about certain behaviours and not only rely on the numbers. If you see a player open with JTs UTG+1 as was stated above, take note and adjust your play accordingly.

c) Pre-flop agression might be targeted more towards certain players than others. Let's say the guy is in position 5 and has two very lucrative fishes to his right. Both flat preflop. If he wants to get involved, most of the time, he'll isolate (unless he was "bought-in by the pot odds) to avoid hemorraging money postlfop if he doesn't hit and still wants to clean the fish if the sharks to his left get in the dance.

So what I'm saying is basically: reads, reads, reads. Stats are good for overall behaviour, but when it comes to specific hand ranges or specific hands, take notes after you observe how they play (will slowplay AA, will try to isolate with a reraise with AKs, etc). Then, once you are on the flop and beyond, you weight all the options compared to previous actions and make the most sensible decision mathwise (usually).

Richyl2008 said:

Maybe this will help you as well - DB Hand Ranger v4 for No Limit Holdem

Click to expand...

Perfect. This is just what I was looking for, an don't worry, I am only taking this is a guideline This is far from set in stone poker but it'll help give me a bit more of an insight.

Richyl2008 said:

Open poker stove and click on one of the player buttons that opens the hand distribution menu. Then click on the preflop tab. At the bottom you should see a slider where you can adjust percentages. I think this is what your asking although I could be wrong.

Maybe this will help you as well - DB Hand Ranger v4 for No Limit Holdem

Click to expand...

Cool, I just got this going on poker stove, always wondered what that slider was for....