These are my basic opening ranges for 5max 10-25nl. If I have stats on the players I adjust accordingly.

HJ:


CO:


BU:


In the SB I pretty much open the same as on the button, or completely depending on the player in the BB.

Please give thoughts and ideas on how to make them better. Should I maybe have a bigger gap between HJ and CO?

Post flop > Preflop

Thanks.

i wouldnt favor 32s OTB over K5s for example

but it might be ok if you think that 32s is dominated never while Kxs might be

These ranges are a little looser than I'd recommend, and I might quibble with some of the choices (I think 97o is more playable than Q7o, and K5s is better than 32s), but I've certainly seen worse opening ranges.

Study the biggest winners in your game and see what their "RFI" is in each position.

I don't play nlhe so i'm not really qualified to answer so what i will tell is purely from watching videos of high stakes/ midstakes players :
- 87o was really close OTB according to HS regs ( i think Sauce and Gogol's Nose folded it w some frequency).
- I don't think many guys open 32s as mentioned before in the thread.

I would prob add all Kxs , throw away 32s and replace it 64s.

The HJ seems pretty loose, i think the bottom of ur offsuit range is rarely played in tough games ( A9o, QTo,JTo etc). It might be right if you have the postflop skills to back it up postflop. But if you're comfortable playing those hands OOP , it makes no sense that u fold Kxs or Qxs OTB vs the same weak opposition IP so i'm confused by your ranges. A 50% button steal is std, but when people are very confident in their postflop game, some open wider.

So either

1) You're very confident of your edge postflop, so loosen up OTB and keep everything the same

2) You're not so sure of having a big edge, so def tighten up in HJ and change a little bit your BTN range, maintaining the freq but reassigning the hands.

Ok I removed A9o, QTo, and JTo from HJ. What about hands at the bottom of my suited range like K7s and J8s, are those strong enough to stay?

It's hard to answer as it depends a lot on your postflop skills.

- Could a HS player open profitably J8s or K8s at nl10,nl25? Probably yes.
- Can he do it profitably in his own games? Probably no.

Besides it depends a lot on table conditions, if people behind you are nitty , you can get away with it. But if they are perceptive and see in their HUD that your opening freq is 23%, a good player would exploit you by 3 betting more often. So the main point is not really that J8s is not profitable per se, but more that your opening frequency seems fairly high. But once again, I don't play those games so I don't know if people are aware of that or no.

Specifically about your range design, there is an eternal discussion if the PP you fold (22-44) are profitable or no. Software like Snowie suggest to fold them but many people find it profitable in their database because people play too poorly postflop. So I think your original range in HJ is too driven by equity rather than board coverage and playability. For ex you raise all those JTo,A9o cause they are hands that rank pretty good equity wise, but you fail to realize that vs actual calling ranges they don't perform that good, so it might be a good idea to for ex drop a lot of your high cards hands like I mentioned before but also maybe K7s,K8s,Q8s,J8s... maybe even K9s ,Q9s, I know sauce opens K9s sometimes but we're talking about one the best players in the world.
And replace them w low PP and maybe some 76s 65s or 54s. Once again these borderlines hands should not be played at 100% freq and you should adapt it to the table as you mentioned earlier.

Top players seem to open from 15-20% in MP so your 23% is def on the looser side.
A good winrate in MP is around 15 to 20bb/100 so if you have that winrate, just make small changes and experiment. If your winrate is much lower, I would suggest you cut down your opening to 16-17% max and see if it works better.

Good luck.

If you're raising 2x I think these are pretty good against bad players, but not so good against good players. I'd definitely add Kxs and some Qxs to my button range and take out 32s.

If you're raising 3x then I think you're too loose from the HJ and CO.

I raise 3x from HJ and CO and 2x from the button. I've taken out A9o, QTo, JTo, Q8s, J8s, K7s, and T8s from my definite HJ range, only raising those when there are bad players in the blinds or too many nits overall.

I would tend to open something of the like:
HJ:22+,A2s+,KTs+,QTs+,J9s+,T9s,AJo+,KQo
CO:22+,A2s+,K9s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T8s+,98s,87s,76s,ATo+,K Jo+,QJo
BTN:22+,A2s+,K2s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T8s+,97s+,86s+,75s+,64 s+,53s+,43s,A9o+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo

You definitely want to open up looser at an exponential rate the closer you are to the Button.

I think everyone has touched on all the major points. You're frequencies are a bit higher than most regs but as long as you're checking your database and those hands and that range as a whole is showing a profit then it is fine.

Just some thoughts but I wouldn't mind hearing what others think....

23s/34s/45s I don't open from any position. 45s on the BTN maybe. These hands do not hit boards often enough. When they do hit there is reverse implied odds because of higher straights and higher flushes. Also, these hands have no top pair value.

A6-A9o I am not opening from any position except the button. These hands also don't hit enough boards and also have reverse implied odds. Unless we hit two pair these hands are hard to get a lot of value from without being beat.

All Kxs and Qxs are great stealing hand imo. I open all of them on the BTN and with blinds or btn that over fold I open all from CO. They have top pair strength and rarely are dominated when they hit a flush.

In the HJ/CO I like to add in the suited gappers. J9/T8/97s. They connect well with many flops allowing you to continue or more boards. And give you board coverage so your HJ/CO ranges are not top heavy.

In some games, 65s is profitable UTG (6-max). 54s is basically the same hand. I often open it UTG. I'm not so keen on 43s/32s, but many players use those for stealing.

Yeah. I'm not faulting them for using those hands for stealing. And with the right situation I will too. I still prefer stealing with 74s than 34s. 54s is close for me but 65s is so much more profitable. With players playing the suited wheel aces at a high frequencies just having that six-high straight over a five-high straight can be highly profitable. Even if the situation only arises once every 5k hands it definitely will add to your win rate.

I would rather open most of the suited hands you have unmarked before opening the bottom of your offsuited marked ones from the BU and CO

Why not 22-44 from HJ? They are much better than A9o or K7s, which are RIO type of hands that easily flop a hand that looks decent but is not worthy of playing large pots with. Small PP's are easy to play postflop, because it's pretty obvious when you're about to make a big mistake and again, pretty obvious when you have a monster.

Opening range of course depends a lot on many things. Looseness of the opponents, their 3-betting tendencies, how do they react to 4-bets etc. Static range doesn't maximize your profits.