I finally have more time to study poker now that school is out, and I'm working on postflop as I feel my biggest leaks are there. Im working on understanding range advantage. Basically, my understanding is the generally higher boards hit early position openers much better, and lower boards hit callers in the blinds better. So generally if you open EP and get a low board like 7s6s2d, you should check your range vs a high board like KT9 you can 1/3 pot range. However in BvB spots and early opener and early caller positions I'm less clear. I've put some hands below.

H1:

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (4.8 BB, 2 players) 7 5 8
Hero checks, BB bets 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB

In this spot, Would this board not favor me, since I could in theory steal super wide and he can't defend as wide? So I should've led out? Range advantage BvB I'm super unclear on.


H2:
PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K K

fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (5.2 BB, 2 players) 2 6 9
BB checks, Hero checks

Here board favours caller in BB, so I should x my range behind? or Bet for protection cause he can have many draws? How would this change if caller was in CO and I was OOP, since in theory this low board wouldn't hit either of us super well, no?

H3:


PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Q T

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, fold, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (5.2 BB, 2 players) K 5 3
BB checks, Hero checks

Here, I would have more Kx, but the lower cards would hit him better as he can have a bunch of SD I can't so this board favours him overall?





Generally, overall, if a board strong favours opponent, x range and if it strong favours you, 1/3 pot with your range? Obviously situation and opponent dependent.

wat


H1 u want to check a lot on the flop

H2 I think u wanna check quite a bit on this board too but its better than the one in H1, the bricky 2 is good for your range since strong hands remain stronger

H3 Can bet range here, you have so many Kx hands that BB doesn't, and he doesnt really have any more 3x or 5x than you. BB will have a lot of whiffs here and he will fold a lot even for a small size (even though he might not be supposed to)

I mean, I could be wrong, but my logic was that, isn't generally the SB stealing range wider than bb defending range?

BB is playing in position so ofc he can play more hands than you open

H1: is false thinking. The wider you open, the wider BB can defend because of position and price. At 25nl a good reg will make your life hell if u open too wide.

H2: You have range advantage. You can have 78s, 22, 99, 66, KK, AA.

H3: You have a huge range advantage.

maybe this is better suited to poker theory forum?

In spots where ranges are super wide range advantage is usually kinda thin and not that important, or at least it isn't the only thing to look at when you need to make a decision.

You overestimate the ability of the BB to flop anything worth a damn.

Many BB's do too, thus exploitative opportunities open up if you understand their range better than they do.

No, this is exactly would this board is for, applying theory approximately correctly to real hands.

wait wtf, school just started for me.. what grade are you in?? anyway , your initial paragraph is more or less correct, with the exception that it has little to do more with position, it has to do with what the starting ranges are.

we can INFER that early position opens are going to be a tight range that hit big flops better, and that the caller is gonna have a capped range that hits smaller boards better, but, it's not guaranteed. you could be vs someone who opens 80% from EP and calls from the btn with only JJ+, see? so its the RANGES interaction with the board

some boards will smash one range so hard that we can bet full range, ie Ak2 when we open raise, or X full range like 567, One thing i have noticed, is that there are a lot more "bet full range" than "check full range" scenarios, especially from Ip.

Unfortunately, there are also going to be plenty of situations where, as iblis touched on, the equity advantage is so thin that we pretty much have a 50/50 mix. An easy starting point is studying the FULL bet FULL x situations, then adding in the more complicated mixed strats as you progress. Lots of these are actually for balance, and the mixing isnt really an immediate +/- ev thing. so you can simplify if youre not worried about being exploited.

going further, there are lots of situations where you might actually be higher in your range on a given board than you think. your h2 , for instance. the difference between that and my 567 range check example is, in your hand, most of the draws have not come in yet, so KK is only behind sets/2p, and ahead of so so many draws that you want to charge, thus its actually a very good bet spot and you're high in your range. now imagine there was a flush or a straight on the board, how many hands your KK would now actually be behind, and, more comprehensively, how many hands your RANGE would be behind.

h1 is a perfect example of a range check
h3 seems like a perfect example of a range bet
ofc this all assumes ranges are sensible, as i touched on in first post.

another tidbit to consider is, that 2 3 4 5 arent the same as 6-9. not all "small cards" interact with his range as well as you seem to assume, there arent gonna be that many 2x combos but theres a lot of 9x combos, so the little cards can actually favor the PF aggressors range, which on top of the K and lack of made nut combos, would lead me to assume h3 is a lot more polarized in our favor.

Hand 1 - check (flop is much higher EV for in position)
Hand 2 - betting that combo
Hand 3 - cbetting, double barreling any broadway/club

A couple of things -

1) Checking is a lot more frequent when out of position.
2) Checking in position is important when out of position is going to be check raising at optimal/higher frequencies (not happening in the 5nlz streets).