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14/01/2012 PKR Ranging right: How to put your opponents on a hand range

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Ranging right
Putting your opponent on a range of hands will make it much easier to boss
players at your table

By Alex Martin on Sunday 12 Jul 2009 05:00

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Chip stack in a line 2.

Narrow our opponent's holdings down to a tight range and ou'll be

able to boss the table

Hand ranges are a fundamental part of poker, and whether you know it or not,
you ve been thinking about them every time you play poker. In case you re
unsure of what one is, a hand range is the spread of hands any particular
opponent can have on any street. A player s range will vary depending on his
looseness/tightness, position, and activity level preflop, which can be
narrowed down even further by his actions on the flop, turn and river.

Simple hand ranges came about from the first old-school live tournament pros
who taught new players about the perils of playing Broadway junk (K-J, Q-T
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14/01/2012 PKR Ranging right: How to put your opponents on a hand range

etc) in early position at full ring tables. But as the games have moved on, hand
ranges have changed along with the players. In six-max cash games, hand
ranges can be incredibly varied. You could have a 90/10 fish (playing 90% of
hands but only raising 10%) and a 12/10 nit at the same table- players who are
at completely opposite ends of the hand range spectrum.

In hold em, hand ranges are very important because very rarely does
somebody have a super-strong hand. In order to be a successful player – in
six-max particularly – you need to try to win as many of the pots as possible
when neither you, nor your opponent has much of a hand. The best way to do
this is to ramp up your non-showdown winnings by understanding hand ranges,
in turn enabling you to read players hands more effectively and get away with
winning far more than your fair share of pots.

But how do you do this? When you can t see the cards your opponent is
holding, you need to be able to form an opinion by creating a range of hands
your opponent could have. As the hand progresses you should continue to
narrow this range. This helps you when you want to represent a scare card,
give up on boards that have hit your opponents ranges hard, or go for thin
value bets against an opponent whose hand strength you are pretty certain of.

Improving our win-rate

Thinking about hand ranges leads to hand reading. Good hand reading leads
to good decisions, and that, as we all know, leads to more chips and cash
dollars.

Hand reading is like most of the skills in poker – there s no pass and fail, just a
far more gradual learning curve. Thinking about hand ranges as a six-max
player will help you beat other players, whether it be by including Q-x suited
from your cutoff opening range when there are tight players in the blinds, to
three-betting K-J suited from the button against a mid-position open from a
loose player. Understanding how ranges interact with each other in terms of
relative strength, implied odds and 101 other factors is sure to make you a
tougher opponent at the tables.

TAG hand ranges

Categorising someone as a TAG (tight-aggressive) player will make playing
them a lot easier. Unfortunately, you'll usually have to play a lot of hands with a
player before you can identify them as a true TAG, as a lot of supposed TAGs
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14/01/2012 PKR Ranging right: How to put your opponents on a hand range

aren't anything of the sort. Players who have a wide gap between the number
of hands they play and the number they raise with in a cash game are not
TAGs – they are some variant of a weak-tight player or fish. True tight-
aggressive players play a fairly selective range of hands, very dependent on
position, but they will play these hands with reasonable aggression. They will
generally enter the pot with a strong holding and very often come in for a raise.
This is a fundamental point in understanding how to combat them.

When a TAG player enters the pot, you should have a pretty good idea of his
range from most positions. Calling a TAG player out of position (from the
blinds) is generally a mistake, as you are unable to exploit an overall weak
range as much as other player types. Calling in position is absolutely fine, but
your default in heads-up pots from the blinds should be to three-bet or fold.

Bear in mind that good TAG players are aware of position, so be wary of
three-betting their early-position raises with hands that are strong but you are
not happy getting your whole stack in with (something like T-T or A-J suited).
TAGs normally have decent steal frequencies from late position and the small
blind in blind battles, so three-betting here is fine to exploit this. It s probably
best not to go after them too much as your strategy will be found out, but
raising their late-position raises around 20% of the time will generally yield a
good return.

E ploiting TAG fears

While TAG players generally enter pots with strong holdings, they are not as
happy playing big pots with marginal and weak hands as other player types.
One of the ways of exploiting TAG players is to float the flop and steal on a
later street. TAGs will rarely double-barrel bluff and almost never triple-barrel
bluff. Out of position you can use floating and bluff-raising turns on scary
boards as effective weapons, because it s in their nature as tight players not to
get too involved when boards get ugly and players get aggressive.

LAG hand ranges

When you have noted that one or more of your opponents at a cash table is a
LAG (loose-aggressive) player, you should slow down and form a strategy for
crushing them. Picking them out shouldn t be too hard because they will be
open-raising with a very wide range, three-betting with a lot less than Jacks
and making some big moves post-flop.

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Ideally you want to have position on a LAG player, as being out of position on
even a losing LAG can be a very tough situation. If you don t get in crossfire
wars with other players gunning for his chips, you ll end up having to gamble,
wait for the nuts or make some very big calls post-flop, none of which are easy
or attractive prospects.

The most effective way of combating a loose-aggressive player is by playing a

strong range. When you have a strong holding, all of your decisions are
generally easier and you get into far fewer complex situations and marginal
spots. It is tempting to get involved when you see a monkey LAG involved in
every pot with less than stellar hands, but this is exactly the adjustment you
should NOT make. Be patient, find a hand and let them bluff into you when you
are comfortable with your holdings. It s important to realise that an awful lot of
the time a LAG will have a weak hand or nothing at all.

Lea ing room for he bl ff

You should be happy to let a LAG player bluff, so don t start raising your set
on a super dry 3-7-T rainbow flop. There is simply no need. These players are
loose and aggressive, not necessarily dumb, and you won t get full value by
playing fast. Instead, play your hand like the bulk of your range. Call, let them
barrel the Ace on the turn, call again and then break their arm off when they
overbet on the river. Don t lose sight of the fact that you make money from
these guys by letting them indulge their aggression.

The other way to combat LAGs is by playing back at them, three- and four-
betting them liberally pre-flop and bluff-raising or check-raising them on the
flop. However, this approach will put you into a lot of high-variance standoffs,
and in general actually holding or flopping a strong hand will be a far superior
strategy.

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abo 70% of he ime a PKR (p eflop allin ). Making i mo e o le ele
pla ing TAG.

"The mo effec i e a of comba ing a loo e-agg e i e pla e i b pla ing

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