Ranging Villains is the best strategy.
hey everyone i just want to talk about poker ranges and get every ones opinion on if they use them and if they think it is a good strategy?
Thank U 4 Posting.
If you play
online poker you have to use hand ranges. Everyone plays poker with ranges in mind even if they do not know how to develop a strategy around it.
Example
I raise UTG you call BTN. Flop comes 234 rainbow. I c-bet you call what hand do I put you on? 77 no 66 no 88 no AK no what hand? No one hand, you could easily have many hands in this spot. So I put you on a range of hands. You could call a cbet with QJ if the Q comes on the turn and I have JJ I bet you raise do I only put you on a Q? No. If you can play well you could have a straight: 54 for a semi
bluff: A4 suited and the Q gave you a four to a flush etc etc. I need to think about the range of hands you could have just like you are thinking I can bluff the Q if UTG has AK AJ A10 BTN should also be thinking will AA KK JJ 1010 99 AK AJ A10 fold on the river if I bomb the river. That is hand ranging.
Some have said it is no good in micro stakes. That is not true. Take the action on the turn when BTN raises on the Q in micro stakes. We know in micro stakes UTG AA KK JJ 1010 is folding only 20% of the time on the river in that spot. If we have the straight we bet big they call. If we miss we do not bluff again because we know they will call. We know the range of hands they will call with and we do not bluff again. Just because micro stakes players call to often does not mean that using ranges does not help.
Using range strategy always works well. You just have to get better at understanding what your villains will do with their ranges.
Today in a free roll I noticed a bet sizing tell by a villain. I also watched that villain make big calls with a wider range than is optimal. My fellow villains were also shoving all in with a range of weaker holdings. 77-22 Axs etc. I used this range analysis to my advantage.
The villain min raised to 800 UTG. Folded to me CO. I had AA. I knew villains min raise hand range was hands they were willing to play big pots with.
I shoved 5K. Villain tanked and called KQcc
It was observing how the villain played his ranges and the corresponding bet sizing that let me know villain was going to call that shove most of the time, after min raising UTG. Had villain min raised MP or HJ I would not have shoved because villain changed their ranges in those spots. Villain's range was wider in MP and HJ so villain was more likely to fold to a shove.
Villain may or may not have been using a range strategy on the villains at the table but most villains are paying attention to what is being shown down after a shove. Knowing that perception of shove ranges allows you to make moves like this.
Just as a side note. The villain was not a call any two fish who you can always shove on. Villain tanked and thought about hand ranges. Villain's mistake was not protecting their hand ranges with common bet sizing, allowing me to exploit their tendencies.
Of course this is not a deep dive into how to use ranges. If you focus on range strategy your results should improve and you will no longer be saying "why did my villain have that hand?"
Hope this helps