Tournament play, ~60-80bb eff

I open the button to 2.2x, BB calls. Flop is T93r. Who has the range advantage and why? If I choose to cbet this board, sizing?
Is that flop considered "connected?" Is it more or less connected than, say, T86 dd?

What do you know about Villain? What is your image at this table? Also, do you think villain has long-term info on your CBet freq?

Let's say he's a reg, with ~45pct fold flop to cbet, and ~8pct raise cbet. Let's assume he has a HUD and sees I'm ~18/14/6, ~75pct cbet IP and ~25pct cbet OOP.

And we assume he has a capped calling range PF......and that you are rockin' the button.

So,,, what is his PF calling range....and what is your PF raising range?

I will open ~40pct range there, so roughly Ax, Kx, 54s, Q6s, T9, 22+. He'll call, usually with a capped range but I can't lock that in vs the population, with similar holdings, maybe a little wider, and using his broadways and AXs as 3bets. A lot of guys will 3b their mid pairs from the BB vs button or cutoff so with them I could rule out sets on that flop but not with this guy.

So, range advantage belongs to...?

The problem when you say "usually" you have to make your best range always*. So, try to be much more specific when you range your villain.

Does he, or doesn't he? Honestly, ranging is creating your best guess at known villain tendencies....because you can always* say "but maybe not here". (Villain never raises garbage except the one time I saw him raise 72o...... ). If you can't find the exact range you want for villain, then all calculations can go out the window in real time imo. Off line (or home rethinking a live session) you can always go with "90%, range equals XXX while 10% range equals YYY...and do a closer approximation to range v range. But in my opinion, the 10% doesn't come into play enough for me to worry about it...otherwise this game is just a crapshoot.


Again, you have to define range better than He always does this....except when he does that.

So what is his range?

What did Equilab (or whatever software you use) tell you when you plugged in those ranges?

He calls with ~top 50pct of hands to that raise size in that spot, all pairs, Q7, 65s, J4s.

It looks to me like I have more combos that can go for value on that board than he does. But the reason for my question, that's a fairly common scenario: late raise, big blind calls, and flop contains a couple middle cards, somewhat connected. And that's the type of board I've shied away from cbetting, and when I have cbet it, I cbet on the large size because I've felt it's more likely to hit my opponent's range, hence he is able to continue versus my value hands.

But a friend watched me play the other day and in this situation when I checked back, told me that this board gives ME the range advantage and I should be hammering it. Hence my question.

the board in question is fairly in the middle as far as range advantages go, so if you were using 3 different cbet sizes, but only one per spot (a decent enough baseline strategy), you should be using the middle one. You still have a range advantage, as open raiser does on most, but not all, boards, but it's not as huge as on, say, 227r.

T86dd is waaay more connected than this board, because there is a flushdraw AND way more straightdraws, so you should be using larger cbetsize at lower frequency.

e: also, King Spew, from the OP it is clear that this poster is not looking for exploitative reasoning in this particular case, so stop trying to force it on him

meh. I was not aiming at exploitive reasoning...more toward getting a definitive range and then plugging in the numbers into an Equilab type program.

Thank you and yes, I have enough problems trying to figure out bet/check frequencies. I have messed around with using 3 sizings, depending on board, at nearly 100 pct IP, and nearly 0pct OOP, and using the top of my would/be cbet range and the low showdown draws as a check/raise range to eliminate one more variable, but I don't think that is optimal, and I am always unsure about proper cbetting out of postiion. So, the 3 sizes you're alluding to are a) 1/4-1/3. b) ~1/2 and c) 2/3-3/4? Can you name a spot where you'd cbet with even some frequency at say 1.5x pot?

One other question, you noted that board as one where the PFR would have an enormous range advantage. Would that board be more advantageous even than A72r? AK6r? KK3r?

sorry, I only play hu, so Im never oop as an agressor in single raise pot, so I cant really help you here

pretty much, yeah, sounds like a good baseline strategy

if and only if you are using strategy with multiple betsizings for the same spot, it would make sense to make a large cbet an overbet IF:
- the board is wet
- your hand (either value or bluff) unblocks opponents value combos

so, on the board 78Tss, you might wanna cbet hands like KT (value) or QJ (bluff) using, say, 2/3 pot, and hands like flopped straights and low flush draws with 1,5x pot sizing. And yes, I know that J in QJ works as "blocker", but in J9 as "ublocker", but it's hard to find perfectly clear example.

On more dry (but still kinda coordinated) boards, like QJ8ss, bottom sets are also good candidates for large sizings, since they unblock top/mid pairs, and bottom pairs are not expected to continue vs overbet often anyway

low paired boards offer the biggest advantage to the open raiser, because bb should have all Ax and Kx in his calling range, but only better 2x and 7x

Thank you.

On the above, it highlights a point of confusion for me...you call the QJ8ss a rather dry board, but I have always treated that like a pretty "wet" board. If cbetting that board I would go to the larger size because a huge part of my opponent's perceived range can continue, yet I feel like the caller would have a range advantage on that board. So Am I thinking about this whole thing from the wrong angle?

its a MORE dry board than 89Tss, but still very much coordinated, so it absolutely qualifies for largest betsizings

in general, if you have big advantage = bet small very often
small advantage/opponent's advantage = bet large, but less frequently

in the most extreme cases, you can easily use binary strategies, like cbetting 100% range for 25% pot on 227r, or never cbetting as a 3bettor oop on 89Tss. Those strats are obviously far from perfect, but are useful simplifiacations that can be improved upon.