This was meant to be a 1K post but I did not finish the post. Now I have
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A chat about ranges !
You need to grasp a few concepts to do that (you could tackle them in this order):
- Reading boards
- Assign a range to villain
- Assign a level of thinking to villain
- Find the appropriate bet size
I will try and give some general thoughts and after that I will give some examples. This will probably (hopefully) help you and others (including myself).
Reading boards
Reading boards is probably an art in itself but you just need to figure out a system for yourself on how to read boards. When reviewing you could hypothetically filter out some factors boards have in common.
- Dry boards: K
7
2
and 33
7
- Wet boards: KJ9 and AT9
- A high boards
- 2 face cards
- Low boards and so on
Try and make a few for yourself, thinking about it is better than only reading posts. If you want to read up on this I recommend Nikachu's video on CR.com, it is free and has a reaaaaally good discussion about boards. Spamz reviews are also really good if you want to practice on that aspect.
Assign a range to villain
Aaah, here is where it gets (even) hard(er) for alot of people, including myself. Try and see it street by street and see it as a filter. It starts at a very broad range preflop (60% PFR) to really specific (5% 3barrel) who has bet/bet/bet on a 226r board. You probably can safely assume he does not have AK. There are alot of cash game articles to be read about that, just look at the beginners FAQ. But it gets really interesting when you can ...
Assign a level of thinking to villain
This is where the real fun stars. This is probably not really appliccable to really low stakes but it is really important to develop your thinking on this early. Alot of it includes knowing what you and villain line were on several streets. You can (when reviewing) differentiate either by street, action you took or action villain took (among other) and try and get some thoughts going. If villain catched your 3 barreling air on 9TQJ2tt be sure to also implement that line when a valuehand comes up. At the start it really is not easy to work with all that information but if you continue to develop your thinking about the game it will become second nature. HUSNG.com offers heaps of videos that work on that aspect, just take a look at their video list.
Find the appropriate bet size
Now you need to incorporate all of this into your plan. This is easier said than done ofcourse. I tend to do it this way:
1. What was the action on previous streets. He raised PF so you can fold out total junk if his PFR is 40%. On an A72r flop vs an unknown you now have several options as always OOP. Check or bet (I assume you do not open fold, if yes, stop doing it). Make sure that when you make up your mind you have a plan for whatever is gonna happen. A decision tree can help you with that problem. Yes make one action per action street per street. You do not need to do that for every hand as it would take a long time but you can take out one or 2 hands a day. It will get more accurate as you keep doing it.
When I check for example with hand XX on that board (readless) you could think of check-raising, check-calling, check-shoving or check-folding. Knowing something about population tendencies helps you here for sure.
lets look at what villain (unkown) thinks our hand will be and what he will do with his holdings, I will do it for a check-raise:
- Check-raise: if villain did that I would think about A total bluff, a weak ace, a PP, a 7 that wants to check where he is at. Based on population tendencies (for low to micro stakes) I think its more a weak ace than a strong one if villain took that line on a rainbow board. It can be A 7 more then a PP and maybe it is a bluff more than a PP. This is just a hypothetical example showing you that you can weigh factors depending on his range PF. A crucial topic to understand is combinatorics. There is some info on this in the beginners forum I think (or do a search). It is crucial to know that there are more AX hands in that PF range than PP for example. It helps you weigh stuff.
Another real important aspect that you should read up on is elastic or static ranges. Elastic is where you can bet a various size on a board and still get a call. When you know villain is calling either 70/120 or 120/120 you can probably bet more with value and less with air if villains respons like this. When he has a static range you can reverse it. Bet more with weak holdings because villain only calls up to X Y Z with X Y Z range.
There is alot to be said about this, I hope I help some of you guys on the way.
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