After UTG, MP, CO here is my swing at improving my button play. I based myself on Verneers content post from a while back.

vs the blinds:
vs Nits (<16vpip):
open A2C for 2.5x
resteal with what: I don't really know what to resteal with. I think I'm overdoing it.

vs loose passives (plays a lot of hands passively)
CO-range

vs Agro 3B blinds
tighten up preflop
4bet jam 66-99
4bet call TT-QQ
call KK+

vs TAGblind (< 3B 5%)
Open: (I must admit I'm opening almost any hand here at the moment.)


facing 3bet:
4bet: JJ-QQ, AK
call: KK-AA AQ, KQs

vs TAG blinds who 3bets too much
open: same
vs 3bet: KQ+, AJs+, AQ, QQ+
4bet/call: 99-JJ
4bet/jam: 55-88
4bet bluff: Axs, QJo

vs UTG/MP open (w/14% opening range)
calling 22-JJ, AQ-AJ, KQ, KJs, KQs, JTs
3bet QQ+, AK
3bet bluff 87s, T9s, T8s, Axs, ….
if they call 3bets: open up valuehands
if they overfold: A2C = $$

vs CO open (w/25-30% opening range
3bet: JJ+, AK
I usually end up 3 betting way too much when I see they have a F3B of higher as 80.
calling:



When the blinds are aggro, I tighten up. When they aren't I end up just stealing everything possible. Nobodie cares about 2c. I actually never kept myself to the 3 betting ranges above. I might be throwing away lots of 3bets. However I think Cbetting earns lots of money in 3bet pots at NL2.

Any thought or advice would be really appreciated !

I think 40% of hands is enough as a standard
opening any 2 suited rags is waaaay overdoing it imo

I was able to open 70%+ up until 200z

How much have you defended? 35%+?
It was exploit way ws nit/fish players?

That chart is your default flatting range on BTN vs CO?

AKs is never a flat, and nor is KTo, but for completely different reasons. Your cold call percentage vs a 25% open should be about 12% maximum. Offsuit Broadways apart from AKo/AQo are close to unplayable in that spot. You only need a few combos of each Ax, Kx, Qx, Jx etc to give you a high equity range with decent board coverage.
A more typical BTN flatting range would look more like AQ, AQs, AJs, KJs, KTs, QJs, JTs, and TT-77. Maybe you can add 66-55 and T9s/98s. (Set-mining the smaller pairs isn't as profitable as it used to be, so I just fold them). You certainly shouldn't be flatting nearly 15%, especially when that 15% contains loads of dominated offsuit trash.
It's completely unnecessary to have KJo and KTo in your range if you're calling with AJs, KJs, KTs, QJs, JTs instead. Likewise with ATo being in there. It's just unnecessary baggage if you already have AQ and AJs. Just fold the offsuit trash. I occasionally 3-bet KQo or AJo because of the blockers, but I don't call with them.

P.S. Verneer's ranges were great back in the day, but the game (especially zoom games) has changed a lot. I feel like a shill when I post this link so often, but you will immeasurably increase your success by playing pre-flop like Snowie: https://www.pokersnowie.com/preflop-advisor.html
Its ranges are much more balanced and lead to much simpler post-flop decisions, since you won't find yourself making agonizing decisions with top pair third kicker very often.

My guess was that Verneer's were rather dated that's why I am asking the my preflop-questions. Don't feel bad for always pointing to the Snowie preflop ranges. I'm looking for answers, i'm starting to feel like a shill (?) for you having to keep repeating the same.

I putted the ranges in equilab and these were the results. Not sure if it means a lot to compare the results like that. it seems logical that when ranges shrink, equity rises.

old calling range vs 25 opening (putted it a range without overthinking it too much). And yes the AKs definitely didn't belong in the range before, the unsuited broadways did. I thought they were stronger.


New calling range inspired by Artie


Artie's calling range vs same 25% opening:


Snowie's range vs CO-open


Snowie's calling range vs CO-open


Snowie 3bets more so Artie's inspired calling range is stronger. Jeej, I win some pf-equity

When considering V has a low vpip, low 3bet, high Cbet-fold it is a defendable line. Otherwise I stick to the range of the first image.

monkersolver range btn vs 2.5bb co open, 100bb deep
to run monker preflop sims you need to set up a server with 256bg ram and it takes smth ridiculous like 700h to complete, which is like a full month of 24/7 running the sim
So I assume theese are pretty damn accurate...

I don't have access to all monker 6m pf ranges but the ones I've seen are close enough to snowie's ranges (at least the ones on the full pc program). You can trust snowie.

note: A8s/A7s are lower ev 3b, same with the lower end of the range ATo,KJo,K9s,Q9s,T9s,54s,66,55. you can consider folding these as a standard and just use them to attack ppl with high ft3b.

calling AQo,AJs,ATs,KJs,QJs,JTs,88,77 is reasonable. rest are prob better off 3b or fold.

Thanks for the input.

So you're saying make the calling range lots and lots smaller to have more 3bet pots ?
Makes sense, but isn't there more value in not make villain fold lots of his hand which we dominate ?

The chart is about 2.5 opens, can you calculate one with 3x open and a 3bet of 10-11 BB ? or isn't that how it works ?

I'm saying you 3b premium hands for pure value, call the ones that are good but not exactly value 3bets and 3b the ones that are just not that good to call but too good to fold.
i.e. a polarized 3b range.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the calculations since I'm not the one who ran the sim, haven't got a server with a 32core cpu and 256gigs of ram lying around
but as a general rule, when your opp raise bigger, you call a little less often and either 3b or fold more

Having villain dominated (with KJ vs KT, for example) isn't actually all that useful, because you'll need to hit a 2-outer (a king) on the flop for villain to donate some money to you. More commonly, you both whiff the flop, he c-bets and you fold the best hand. (Or worse: You make top pair with KJ on Kxx, and villain only plays for stacks with KQ+).

Another reason why you should only have a very small calling range in position, is that it's a multiway game and you're not closing the action.
Apart from wanting decent equity/playability when you do call (at a low frequency) you also don't want to be too vulnerable to squeezes by the blinds. If you called pre with stuff like KJo then not only does your flatting range play badly vs the opener, you also have to fold to 3-bet squeezes extremely often.
If instead, you flat with a narrow range, you can still continue (with hands like AQ, AJs, TT/99) when one of the blinds 3-bets.

To emphasise, you don't make much money by pressing CALL pre-flop, as that means you need to make the best hand pretty often to win the pot. (And you can't do that if your range is weak).
You make money by bloating the pot with good hands, and you drag other pots by 3-betting light and taking it down pre or on the flop with a c-bet. The only good calling hands (shown as green on ionut's chart) are those "mid-strength hands" that play well in single-raised pots whether you're heads up, or multiway with the BB coming along too. Hands like 88 are classic examples. Flopping a set in a single-raised pot as a caller is good. It's even better when the BB overcalls and makes a worse set.

So that makes going for snowie's/ionutz range and make work of my 3bet-ranges.

How would you advise me to work on that ? Would you advise working out ranges according to V's opening range or thinking from position to position ?
Maybe anyone can point me to some good materials/readings ? I'll take a look at pokersnowie preflopadvise but I'd like something with more background informations and words too.

A few years ago, I spent considerable time making pretty charts for almost every pre-flop positional battle, using Snowie's suggestions as a basis.
i.e. For my UTG ranges, I copied the opening range and then I created an additional chart for what to do if MP 3-bets (so I could pinpoint which hands 4-bet, which call and which fold), another one for what to do if CO 3-bets, one for getting 3-bet by the BTN, SB etc.
Then I built six charts for MP: Which range to play vs an UTG open, which range to open myself, and then what to do vs 3-bets by each of the other players.
Then I moved on to CO, BTN, SB and BB.

Once I had 36 of these charts, I started looking at squeezing and over-calling ranges. While building all these charts I continued to study other materials (Janda's 2 books, especially) and also looked at results in my database, in order to tweak my ranges for the player pool I'm in.

These days, coaching sites offer similar chart-based "solutions" to pre-flop. The more expensive courses have over 250 charts! (They have strategies for various stack sizes, as well as each positional battle). I think Upswing still offers basic opening range charts for cash-games for free when you sign up for their mailing list, but they also sell more extensive range charts for 3-bets/4-bets etc in their 'lab'.

You don't really have time to work on building ranges from scratch. Just look at what's already available on the market (Snowie's PFA is free), spend some time in the theory forum and looking at hand histories in this one, and then ask questions if you're unsure why particular hands appear in a range.
To some extent, you don't even need to know the theory of why A5s is a 4-bet in UTG vs CO, or why KJo is a fold in CO v UTG. You just copy the charts, or whatever the latest training videos/courses tell you. Good players (and software) already know what works. It's 'best by test', as Bobby Fischer used to say. Especially as a relative beginner, you can't make charts that are better than those that already exist.