Im still having trouble with assigning hand ranges to villains while playing online poker. I have read Pokeys post on assigning hand ranges and it was very good but some of it had PT stats being used and I dont have PT. Does anyone have any examples of a hand and what there thought process is while playing? Its a major leak of mine and I really want to be able to fix it.

hope it helps...

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/show...umber=10397012

Just start with the basics. Download Pokerstove and Hold'em Ranger.

First you try and develop a general idea as to how tightly or loosely they're playing. Obviously a tighter player raising in early positions will be more likely to have a strong hand than a loose player in late position. Then, all you're really doing is trying to continually refine what you know about the player's hand selection by seeing what they show down and how they play in certain situations on certain streets.

When it comes to Pokertracker -and man, you really have to shell out for this at some point- it's a great help to know that X player is playing 14/11, which means that he's playing 14 percent of all hands, and raising 11 percent of all hands, which is very tight. If you see a player like this at your limit, you'll know his range is pretty narrow and that you aren't likely to see him raising hands like Q9o from the cutoff very often, which in turn help you alleviate that particular hand from his range if the flop comes KJT.

In a more practical example, say you raise from EP with nines and a TAG 3-bets you from the SB. Other things being equal you can narrow down the range of hands you'd reasonably expect to see here. Provided you're not an overly aggro player, your raise out of EP is a sign of strength. Despite that, villain decided to 3-bet you from horrible position, which is a sign of even more strength. In this case, you're either way behind an overpair or even money against two overcards. On occasion you'll be against a pair of 7s or 8s, but not that often, and even a bluffing hand like KT is even money against you.

Now, say you call his 3-bet... well, now he's going to have an easier time narrowing down your range too. He'd immediately be asking himself what kind of hand would you raise from EP with, and then call a 3-bet in position with? If I were him I'd startin thinking things like:

Is this guy tricky? Would he flat my 3-bet there with AA or KK trying to be sneaky? Or is this a worried QQ? The other pairs make sense - he might be calling for set odds and trying for a third 7 or something. He seems solid so I doubt he'd do something like this with a weak ace or lower SC's, how deep are we? Could he... no. I guess he might do that with AK, he might play that a little carefully against me since I have a tight image...

... and so on. Then you evaluate the flop and try to figure out which of his likely hands would have hit or picked up a draw.

Let's refine the example somewhat and say the flop comes all low cards, say 843 rainbow, all less than your nines. Since he's so tight, it's not likely to have hit the hands he's most likely to be holding (his range) - likewise, it's not likely to be a part of your range either. But then, if he has an overpair, he doesn't need to hit to be ahead of you. Look at how various hands in his range stack up against your 9s now:

If he has an overpair, he's a massive favorite at 9-to-1 or even better. You're basically looking at 2 outs.

If he has two overcards, even AK, you're a 3-to-1 favorite. You don't have anywhere as big a lead since he has 6 outs to catch an ace or king to beat you.

Rare case: If he has 77, you're a massive 9-to-1 favorite, a bit less if he has 55 since he has some backdoor straight potential.

Rare case: If he was bluffing and has two junky low cards, there's all kind of way he could have hit that raggy flop. Given his tendencies, not a likely scenario.

Another rare case: It's possible he could have 3-bet you with a smaller pair and hit a set (8s being most likely in this case). You'd be about as bad off as you are against an overpair.

So when you look at how your nines stack up against these various possibilities, you can see that you're generally in bad shape here against his range of hands. Since you have position, you wait and see what he does and then reevaluate. If he leads out, what does that usually mean? Does he lead with hands he likes or to protect an overpair? Are his leads weak? If he checks, is this a trappy check-raising sort of player?

You just keep putting the pieces together, and when you have time after you're done playing, look through your hands and run some through pokerstove.

thanks a lot both very good examples especially yours gonso much appreciated

Excellent information headed your way so far, this is just a footnote.

I see from your location that you play 10NL. I've found hand reading exceedingly difficult at this level, because 90% of the time, your opponent limp/called and they'd do that with just about any two cards, depending on their mood. While this takes away one of the most important tools you have (starting with a limited palette of hands based on preflop action), it forces you to think in terms of ranges a LOT, paying attention to postflop action.

Don't give up! You'll rarely be able to make amazing laydowns or brutally thin valuebets at this level, just because opponent's range will be so vague. But you will be able to sense if they were on a draw, whether it hit, that sort of stuff. Keep an eye on their aggression factor -- someone raising who has a 0.2 AF is one of the surest signals you can get at this level.

Get PT, it's absolutely worth it. It will pay for itself even at 10NL. You can also get opponent stats for free via real time hud