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Edited by Niti998 at 25-12-2023 12:04 PM
Title: Step 1: Understanding Your Opponent
Range-based thinking typically begins with an understanding of your opponent's playing style and tendencies, often based on observations of their previous gameplay history. Even when facing new opponents, you can usually categorize them after just a few rounds of play.
The most fundamental concepts are "tight" and "loose" (referring to how frequently an opponent enters the pot) and "aggressive" and "passive" (referring to their tendencies in betting). These four basic concepts give rise to four player types:
1. Tight-Passive: Plays few hands and usually checks or calls.
2. Tight-Aggressive: Plays few hands and usually bets or raises.
3. Loose-Aggressive: Plays many hands and usually bets or raises.
4. Loose-Passive: Plays many hands and usually checks or calls.
Each of these types can have variations (e.g., a loose-aggressive player with some tight tendencies) and may overlap at times. However, these four types provide a helpful starting point for range-based thinking. Once you identify a player's type, you can begin to think in terms of ranges.
Determining a Range:
For example, let's say you identify an opponent as a tight-aggressive or ""rock"" type of player. They rarely enter pots, fold most hands, and have only shown down strong hands like AK over several rounds. This information helps you narrow down their range when deciding whether to continue in a hand with a specific hand.
Now, this player, who you've categorized as tight-aggressive, raises from an early position. You see 8♦8♣ in your hand on the button and decide to call. The flop comes Q♦7♣6♠, and your opponent bets 2/3 of the pot.
When determining your opponent's range, you should consider three factors: their image (based on your previous observations), their actions, and the board texture. In this case, you're facing a raise from a tight-aggressive player and a relatively dry flop.
By combining these pieces of information, you've gathered a lot of clues to narrow down your opponent's range. All of these factors point to a very tight and strong range, possibly containing only hands like overpairs or AxQx. This range likely doesn't include many hands that would beat your 8♦8♣.
Now, let's imagine your opponent is a smart tight-aggressive player, but their position has changed to the cutoff while you remain on the button. The action unfolds similarly, with a preflop raise and a continuation bet on the Q♦7♣6♠ flop. In this case, your opponent's range widens to include hands like AxKx, AxJx, and Ax10x, as well as many medium to large pocket pairs and possibly some suited connectors.
In this situation, your pocket eights are likely ahead of a significant portion of your opponent's range. Therefore, you decide to call the flop bet. On the turn, a blank card, 2♦, is dealt, and your opponent checks.
Continuing to assess your opponent's range based on their image, actions, and board texture, you can further narrow it down. With their preflop raise, flop bet, and turn check, you can remove hands like pocket pairs and focus on hands like A♦K♦, A♦J♦, A♦10♦, 10♦9♦, and 9♦8♦, with a high likelihood.
You decide to bet half the pot on the turn, and your opponent calls. Now, what do you do? Continuing from the narrowed-down range, A♦K♦, A♦J♦, A♦10♦, 10♦9♦, and 9♦8♦ become the dominant hands in their range. Other non-suited hands are unlikely to be present.
It's essential to reduce your opponent's range, not expand it. You might be tempted to think they have a hand like Qx, but often, this feeling is influenced by your own hand strength rather than a rational assessment of your opponent.
Consider this: You've already concluded that this player would bet with AxQx on the Q♦7♣6♠2♦ board, as well as other strong hands, but they wouldn't check-call with them. Avoid making the situation more complicated for yourself.
This is where many novice players struggle after the flop. As each new street and new information unfolds, the range should generally narrow down. Every newly revealed community card and every new action provides clues to reduce your opponent's range. Novice players, lacking experience in range thinking, may sometimes forget their opponent's previous actions when new cards hit the board, potentially adding more hands to the opponent's range, especially when those cards appear unfavorable to their own holdings.
For example, if your opponent checks and calls on the turn, and the river card is an A♣, do they really have AxXx in their range now? Or has nothing changed? Think about it. Before the river card was dealt, you had already eliminated most AxXx hands from your tight-aggressive opponent's range, leaving only A♦K♦, A♦J♦, and A♦10♦. Their check on the river likely doesn't make sense if they have AxXx. They might be aggressive when hitting an Ace, but they could choose to check-call with it.
When facing such an opponent, following their lead by checking behind on the river is recommended because they may not call with worse hands than a pair of Aces.
In Conclusion:
While even professional players can sometimes miss information early in a game or make errors in assessing opponent images, they often have a good reason for doing so. In such cases, they play cautiously on the turn or river, being careful not to expand their opponent's range. Players might also employ unconventional tactics, such as slow-playing or making large river check-raise bluffs. These tactics may not be crucial to consider, but keeping them in mind can increase the complexity of range thinking.
However, regardless of the situation, it's generally advisable to always consider your opponent's possible range. Doing so will help you gain a deeper understanding of the significance of each action. Observe your opponents, use their actions to categorize their playing styles, and utilize this information to narrow down their ranges when you're facing them in a hand. |
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Post time 12-9-2023 16:34:22