Hey, so I have a very experienced online tournament player and pretty successful. I have played online cash for a while and done well but never really understood balance and being un-exploitable. I understand that it means you need bluffs and value hands in particular spots but how do you determine the 'balanced ratio?' Like, should you have 50% bluffs and 50% value hands? I know it varies with bet sizing so it like if you bet full pot and give your opponent 2-1 that you should have 2 value hands for every bluff?

if you're playing ssnl, worrying about balancing your range will probably just level you

While I agree that trying to practice balance at ssnl will like cause you to make incorrect decisions more often than not, I disagree that the subject is not a valid one to learn at these stakes for the following reasons:

It gets you to think about your own range away from the table which can make decision making easier in real time.

By constructing a balanced range you can better understand when to deviate from that range to exploit your opponents.

I would add to OP that balance isn't just about betting and bet sizing but constructing your ranges in such away as to prevent your betting strategies from being exploited whether that is protecting your checking range so that when you check opponents aren't able to profitably bet ATC or when you bet you have enough bluffs to encourage additional action for your value hands.

Mathematics of Poker introduces this topic fairly well with the AKQ game.

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oh great thanks. so against unknowns that you see as good players but don't have that much info on you, would you be very careful to have balanced range? I feel there are spots where u can exploit good players by making a play a fish would make but with the opposite hand. so like snap min raising J76ss with a flush draw or 89 knowing that a good player would perceive that as a good hand always. enough tho i am not balanced and would never do that with like QJ or a 76 or a set

Been wondering about the OPs question too. In theory, to be 100% balanced, you do have to have an exact percentage of value hands and bluffs for a certain betsize, right? In practice its obv very hard to accomplish i guess.

Yes in general when you have limited information making a decision that is close to game theory optimal (or balanced in your terminology) is typically the best decision we can make with the information we have.

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