Balance ranges

[jadaminato]

Hello! I have been part of the club for a few months and, as I have many hands of some players, they will have them from me. So I think the time has come to balance my ranks. For example, my 3bet are not usually paid because I have no hands that are not premium there. Or my openings in UTG are usually very obvious. So I know that I should include weaker hands, but I don't know which ones and how often. Should I do 3bet with hands like AJo against loose players? Should I open low suited connectors in early positions on conservative tables? Any advice will be welcome. I think I have a good post flop game so I'm not scared to enter with any hand, but I play a lot thinking about the odds and crap hands like Q5o or 54s in UTG does not have enough EV on most occasions. So I hope someone can enlighten me about it.

P.S:My VPIP is usually around 17%, so I don't know if I should actually include more hands or play more aggressively some of the ones I already have

 

[MattRyder]

VPIP = 17% is way too low in my opinion. You do need to enter more hands. Opening and/or 3-betting with weaker hands out of position isn't the way to do it though, UNLESS you know that you will be able to bluff your opponent out of the hand post. And you will need to bluff MOST of the time if you play weaker hands strongly out of position pre-flop. Crap hands are just that - crap hands.

My advice - loosen up in position for cheap (limp if the table will let you, or normal open but do not call most 3-bets/raises unless you happen to have a really good hand, and still stick to better hands unless your pre-flop plan is to bluff post. Obviously you'll need to mix this up a bit since you don't want to be seen as always folding to aggression. Don't be a nit, but don't veer too far the other way either.

BTW, as you no doubt know, small pairs lose all the time when they don't make a set on the flop. The question is how much are you willing to throw away to confirm that your opponent really does have that Ace or King or Queen.

 

[zhilipp]

try using your image until it changed and then do the same again. they will always be guessing and thats your advantage

 

[eetenor]

Hello! I have been part of the club for a few months and, as I have many hands of some players, they will have them from me. So I think the time has come to balance my ranks. For example, my 3bet are not usually paid because I have no hands that are not premium there. Or my openings in UTG are usually very obvious. So I know that I should include weaker hands, but I don't know which ones and how often. Should I do 3bet with hands like AJo against loose players? Should I open low suited connectors in early positions on conservative tables? Any advice will be welcome. I think I have a good post flop game so I'm not scared to enter with any hand, but I play a lot thinking about the odds and crap hands like Q5o or 54s in UTG does not have enough EV on most occasions. So I hope someone can enlighten me about it.

P.S:My VPIP is usually around 17%, so I don't know if I should actually include more hands or play more aggressively some of the ones I already have

Thank U 4 Posting.

Good job identifying tendencies in others and yourself.
Now we need to be very specific.


First step is how any 3 bets have you made? How many folds have you gotten?

If the answer is low 10 3 bets /9 folds then maybe we should wait a while before we change our hand selection..

I included some thoughts below if you want to consider how to adapt your ranges.


3 bets are not getting paid.

We want to look at specifics here.

OOP 3 bet fold?

IPOS 3 bet -fold?

Deep stacks? Short Stacks?

What is your 3 bet sizing?
3x? 4x? 5x? Shove?
This is where we can make the simplest of changes to get our 3 bets called.


Are you ever trapping in POS with AA KK?
Are your villains ever squeezing?

What villains are folding?
Weak V who open's wide but folds?
Strong V that opens tight but folds?

In both these cases we should increase the range of hands we are raising with.
If our 3 bets are never getting called we can 3 bet almost anything.

When widening your 3 bet range you do not want to play hands where your villains can dominate you post flop.
Ie AJ vs a V that raises AA KK QQ AK AQ AJ JJ-22. Vs that V you would rather raise 87

Versus weak opens we can raise more KQ KJ QJ Kx suited etc, not vs the tight V.

The above assumes Vs do not fold every time so we have to have playable hands post flop.
That seems to be your goal to get Vs to call more often.

Wider preflop ranges requires good post flop skills. You need to be able to know if you can use pressure to get folds and you need to be able to fold when behind with good but non nut hands.


Hope this helps

 

[UncleConRon]

My opinion

Thats all out the door cause they get off the table. You gotta add a parity bit on ninty percent of those bet and they might guess odd when its get even.

 

[jadaminato]

Thank you for your answers, I will consider them.
I have opened my 3bet range a bit and I am still getting many folds, even from much better hands than mine. So I will take advantage of that image until I changed, and then I will try to get value for my premiums almost never paid.