Balancing a very wide range and turn.
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 968
How do you balance a very wide range like the opening range from the button for example? since that range contains very little hands of value and much more trash and semibluffs , how can you even bluff a board successfully?
even a board like K-x-x or A-x-x will hardly make a cbet convincing.
Also how do you balance the turn? since so little hands contain true value its very hard to bluff with a respectable rate , even a hand like a top pair top kicker will probably fold against a reraise without information which means
valuable hands are sets+ perhaps two pairs aswell , am i wrong in this?
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 12,054
This is exactly why you need to be a good hand reader to play wide non standard ranges. Let's say you play 40/30 stats and your opponent is continually putting pressure on you. You're going to have a lot of junk that needs to fold, plus you'll have a lot of middling hands that will continually be paying off value bets. If you played tighter, say 30/20, then you wouldn't have as much junk in range and you'd be able to fold your middling hands without being exploited. This is where hand reading and default strategies come in. With good hand reading and a solid default strategy, you'll be better prepared to make exploitive calls, folds, checks, bets, and raises. Without hand reading and a solid default strategy, you'll be the one who is being exploited. You could be playing perfect postflop poker but if your range is too wide to begin with then you'll be paying off with the middling hands too much, or if you don't pay off with these hands then you'll be folding a lot, which is also exploitable.
All that is a long winded way of stating the dangers of playing wide ranges. On the other side of the coin are the pitfalls of playing too tight. There's a sweet spot somewhere in the middle to be deviated from when you spot a weakness, or imbalance, in your opponent's strategy, or in the strategy of the average player for the stake you're playing.
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 69
I think this touches base with the importance of us making the correct adjustments for 3-betting pre flop the right amount of time and being more selective with our players at the table and also the actual tables,
some opponents will note for example someone who tries to disguise their strong hands maybe check call top pair. or the nuts, these days pretty much all winning players are going to use our exposed hands to work out how we play, and pick up on pre flop action and times we fold and ofcourse our displayed stats range.
always try and coincide your bluffs with your strong hands, and play some next level game against the regs,
If we can start re exploiting the regs thought concepts, and narrow their range, we can put them into situations they have to fold since most of the time we are going to have the goods. even if we have air (which I dont advise) and rep strength they have to fold top pair medium kicker on a wet 4 higher nut board as long term its +EV