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So I seem to be having trouble balancing my ranges on flops. I can come up with a lot of value hands but cant seem to come up with even close to enough bluff combos. Do I need to:
1. Put more junk into my bluffing range? Seems kind of spewy but it's also the only way to add bluff combos.
2. Bet less value combos? I can achieve balance this way but lose a ton of value.
3. Widen my preflop ranges so that I can have more bluff combos postflop? Again, seems spewy.
4. Not worry as much about balance and let my range dictate my bet size? So if I have way more value than bluffs then bet bigger. More bluffs bet smaller.
Any thoughts appreciated.
First off, this question is so broad that its impossible to answer all of it. But here is a synopsis that I think will help.
First off, based on your response that over two years you are a break even player, I would think you need to take a strong re-evaluation of your ranges, and especially postflop play (specifics here would help - can you give an example of your pre-flop strategy for example). There is almost 0% chance that you are playing anywhere near a balanced strategy and not at least a somewhat significant winner. 5bb/hr+ at least. The very idea of balance is such that you win from your opponents mistakes, and there have been many in two years. Yes, we can often win more at low stakes by exploiting errors more than balance, but balance wins plenty still.
1. You say into your bluffing range. You shouldn't have a 'bluffing range'. You should have a basic three ranges when starting out -
-- Strong/Nut hands + Very strong draws
-- Medium strength made hands + weak draws
-- Weak/ Garbage.
Each of these ranges contains bluffs (well at least the top two- you just fold garbage). But the 'range' contains both value hands and bluffs for each. You will play every hand in each of these ranges in a similar fashion. So your 'bluffing range' is really some strong bluffs that you will fire big/triple barrel, and some that you will stab and give up. You balance your big bluffs by having more nut hands you play that way. Balance is about the ratio of bluffs to value when compared to the bet size.
2. Probably yes. Do you have any strength at all in your flop check range? Many players do not and its a huge leak.
3. Unlikely. But can't say without knowing what your range is. If you were truly balanced post-flop and can't find bluffs you would have the nittiest of all nitty pre-flop ranges.
4. This question doesn't make sense unless you are approaching postflop play with a single range in mind. Its fine to think of preflop as playing a single bet size for a range of hands. Once you go postflop you need to start differentiating and playing hands differently (i.e. some check flop, some bet small, some bet big). This creates different ranges for each choice.
Most likely it appears that you are trying to play too many hands the same way.
BTW... other posters are correct. To beat 1/2NL you really only need to play value and let the others spew. Most likely you have a decent strategy and just spew too much in the name of balance (which is probably far from true balance). If you give specific examples like a hand and how you play your ranges on that board we'd be much better able to help you.