Comments for a fellow CR'er

This is a comemnt I tried to make on his blog but the formating got all messed up. So I'm posting it here in case somebody is working on the same thing, and obviously for that CR'er's benefit.

"Honestly I'm not the best person to explain ranges to anybody. If you haven't read Jman's article on gbucks or Brian Townsend's article on ranges, you definiteyl should do that. But I think have a good grasp lately and it's becoming very powerful and helpful to my game. I'll try to explain it as I understand it.

Let's say in a 6 max scenario where you hold AKo in utg and you make a standard raise. TAG Button cold calls and we see a flop. Let's assume you and villian are both 100bb deep. TAG's pf range is probably Kxs(x>T), low to mid PP, SC, maybe big PP(rarely but sometimes). The flop comes KhTh7s. You make a standard cbet...

Scenario 1a:

Villian cold calls. Now, you are thinking about the villian's range. If he's a loose and passive flop cold caller, I can put him on maybe Kxs, JTs, QTs, flush draw, 2P(somewhat weird), set, OESD, gutshot. All of these. Most of these hands he's probably just going to shut down on the turn.

Scenario 1b:

Villian cold calls here too. Now assume the guy is very tight caller(folds 80% to cbet). Now you can only put his range to Kx, OESD, flush draw, set, 2P. See how ranges changes from villian to villian based on their tendencies?

Scenario 2:

Villian raises 3x. Now, his range is more narrow. His range is probably a set, 2P, and 98, JQ and a flush draw, occasionally you'll see AA,KK or the same hand.


Effectively you are playing villian's range not his "exact" hole cards. Because you can never be sure you can put villian on 1 hand unless it's overly obvious. In Scenario 1a, knowing villian's range is so wide, you should probably just keep value betting(probably somewhat lighter) into him for 2 more streets. If he raises and the turn completes something, you might have to consider folding(again, his range changes as you gain more information). In Scenario 1b, villian's range is a lot more tighter, I'd charge him for draws harder, I'll bet harder because if he has me beat, he'll probably raise. And if he wants to bluff the turn, it'll cost him more to do it. In Scenario 2, this one is very tricky. If I feel this villian is super aggro, I probably just stick my AK in and be happy about it. But if he's more selective about raising, maybe only monster draws and a set, AA, KK, AK, then you are dominated by his raising. By shoving this villian, you are never ahead of his range. Hence you will lose money to this villian by playing like this. A more conservative play is to just cold call his raise and see what the turn brings and how villian bets. If he checks behind, you almost guarantee he has vulnerable hand. And I'd probably value bet the river because his range narrowed. If the river gets ugly, completes some draw. You check to villian, he fires a psb. His range is either the nuts or air, he never has a marginal hand there. You have to consider his range from pf to river to make this decision. On this particular board, I probably make a call more than a fold because there are way too many busted draws out there that would bluff. Another factor is how often a villian bluffs, if he never bluffs, you probably should never call w/ your TPTK. So his range for psb river is always narrowed to the nuts. Range changes as you gain more information, keep that in mind.

I hope this helps you. I recommend dropping down to very few tables and thinking about villian's range on every hand. By doing this more, it comes automatic later and you'll be able to handle a situation better. Good luck!"