Hi

My question is in regards to the construction a defence range and why a certain hand (NFD+TP) might not be included in the value raising part of that range, whereas the remaining NFD hands are. Why might this NFD hand, (which I assume has even greater equity as it hits top pair also) be demoted to the calling part of a range?

My question comes from a youtube tutorial entitled "studying with Flopzilla" by Delano Nunes. In this video, Nunes tackles constructing a range to defend against a flop cbet from a single MP raiser having flatted from the BTN pre-flop.

As his defence range is made up of value raises, bluffs and calls, Nunes starts to construct that range by determining which hands should make up the value part of that range, and my confusion comes from his choice to exclude a NFD+TP hand from his value raising range and to place it instead in the calling part of his range.

Flop Jd 8s 5s

The suited part of his pre-flop flatting range that gives him a flush draw on the flop is AQs AJs ATs KQs KJs QJs JTs 67s.

He chooses AsQs, AsTs, T9s and 67s as value raising hands against villains MP opening range. He mentions not including AsJs as part of the value raising range but does not explain why, assuming perhaps that one should understand why.

Hopefully this is obvious to someone.


Thanks

It appears to be a video by Matt Janda. I haven't watched the entire video recently (it's quite old), but one of the reasons why you might flat AJss on Jd 8s 5s is that you have the board crushed, due to your blockers (you block top pair as well as flush draws) and there are very few turn cards you'd hate to see, and you'll always be able to get to the river. Weaker flush draws gain some EV by making villain fold some hands that might be currently ahead. AJs has so much equity that it doesn't need to leverage some fold equity (as a "bluff"), and it doesn't make a huge amount of sense as a value-raise, because there are very few worse hands that can continue. Just calling allows your opponent to keep bluffing with hands that often have very low equity (e.g. dominated flush draws).