Balancing AK Continuation Range 6-Max
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 155
A typical scenario where I raise pre with AK and get 1 caller who is in position.
Flop is super dry Kh 6s 2d
Obviously I lead my TPTK, but I need some bluffs in my range to balance. Any suggestions? I have 16 TPTK hands in my range, and any fixed bluffing range I can think of has too many hands that I would be getting way out of line.
Or should I just lead 100% of my pre flop raising range as the flop hits my range harder than theirs?
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 17,443
How do you come up with 16 TPTK combos?
If you only bet TPTK+ on that flop and maybe don't even play 66/22 preflop, your bluffing range should obviously be pretty narrow. If you bet a wider range, you can include more bluffs.
One approach would be to design your valuebetting range and then add an appropriate number of bluffs to it.
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 155
Thanks for the reply. I guess a more simplistic question would be:
How do I go about constructing a bluffing range on boards which are so static that there aren't many clear flush/straight draw blockers to choose from, like the example above.
If my value range is AA (6) KK (3) AK(8) 66 (3) then I need to pick a around 20 bluffs from my range A2s-A5s, 77+, All J+ broadway, and a few higher suited connectors.
If villian has established post flop tendencies I can act accordingly, but vs unknown in this common scenario I feel like I don't have a solid approach to choosing bluffs.
I worked through it earlier and thought my A3-A5 suited hands would make good candidates for back door straight flush equity, but then I wondered if A high would be too strong on this board to turn into a bluff.
Any bluff range building advice would be appreciated!
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,633
as always, you want to construct your value range from the very bottom of your range, ie, hands that are very unlikely to win at showdown. AQ has some showdown value on K62, T9 does not, so you would rather cbet the latter.
Second considerations are blockers, but given that you are posting in the beginners forum, you dont have to think about them too much, just keep in mind that it is nice to have blockers for villian's continuation range. In our example, IF you choose to cbet AQ (which you should at some frequency), it is a good candidate to triple barrel bluff (granted there are no drastic board structure changes), since it blocks KQ and AK, which are most likely hands that can call us down.
That being said, in spots like this (static board and tight ranges) you can simply cbet 100% range for 1/4-1/3 pot size.
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 13,256
Check most of your pairs between QQ and A2, check most of your ace highs, bet almost anything else that has any kind of backdoor draw. e.g. On K62, all combos of 87s have a backdoor OESD, and if the board is heart-club-diamond, you could bet T9hh, T9cc, T9dd, but don't bother with T9ss. (Same for JTs).
When you get to the turn (assuming villain calls flop), keep firing with anything with 8 outs or more, give up with your no-hopers.
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 1,144
You only have 12 combos of TPTK, not 16
You have 16 combos of AK preflop
When a king shows up on the flop, that card can no longer be in your hand, lowering the amount of AK in your range. You now have 12 combos of TPTK rather than 16