Q&A #94: Putting Someone On A Range Of Hands

Thanks for the kind words Ed.

This topic comes up at a really opportune time for me as I’m trying to get started on putting villain on a range, and I’m struggling - a lot.

I play NL25 full ring and after reading NLTAP and, more recently, PNL I have a pretty health win rate (25bb/100 over a very modest sample size of 5,000 hands), so sooner or later I guess I should think about moving up. But I think most of my money comes from making good pre-flop choices. I don’t play trash, I respect position, and while I can seldom hit it exactly I do at least think about a target SPR and have a commitment strategy before I put money in the pot. That makes post flop play a lot easier, and I can get away with being lousy at the R bit of REM.

So before I move up I would like to get better at this ‘range’ thing - which takes practice I guess. But that seems to be quite hard at NL25 where it is not uncommon to get 4 or 5 limpers. You raise 2-3 BB to sweeten the pot and everybody folds. You raise 4 + 1BB per limper, limper1 calls and then the rest come along for the ride too. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining; I know this behaviour is very exploitable. But how can you refine hand reading skills facing players who will call a large raise with any ace, king or queen, any two suited and any two unsuited connectors – just as long as they aren’t the first one to call?

Ed,

If you do not have any read on the player and have to guess, do you lean towards folding or getting it all-in in these spots?

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But how can you refine hand reading skills facing players who will call a large raise with any ace, king or queen, any two suited and any two unsuited connectors – just as long as they aren’t the first one to call?
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Pay attention. All the time (I’m often terrible at this by the way). Even better, when you’re out of the hand, play along with one of the players in the hand and predict their action and guess what they are going to turn up with if the get to showdown. Be very specific. Say things like he’s going to bet x and villain will call with Tx, j9, Axs and will raise sets and 2 pair hands and will shove with a big draw like js9s on a Ts8sx board. Be more specific as the streets progress. At the end of the hand you’ll often find yourself correctly putting guys on reasonably specific hands. In all honesty, I find this easier to do outside the hand than in it. Pressure of time, emotional investment in the hand, etc, etc.

You can only get better at hand reading by following the action and seeing what people turn up with. It’s really hard to do this only with your own hands if you’re tight at all. If you play a taggy 16/10 or 12/9 style and get to showdown 25% of the time, you are only seeing 4 or less showdowns/100 hands. Even if your competition is looser, it’s possible that you’ve only seen 200-250 of your own showdowns in your 5K sample. That’s just not that many.

Todd,

Thanks for the advice.

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Even if your competition is looser, it’s possible that you’ve only seen 200-250 of your own showdowns in your 5K sample. That’s just not that many.
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There are some many things that I have learnt since I started taking poker seriously six months ago that are so obvious that when you see them written down you can’t help but think, “doh - why didn’t I think of that!” - and this is another one of those moments. I guess I’m just too impatient.

There have been a couple of moments when I got it right, and it felt so good. One where the only hand that had me beat was AK, and villain bet hard. But I’d seen him play AK just two orbits before - and he hadn’t limped in that time. So I took a chance and won.

The other time I wasn’t even in the hand but was pretty sure who had the set, and I was right. And that felt almost as good.

So that’s twice over, errr, six months. Ok, but it’s a start, and maybe not as bad as I first thought, so thanks again.

I know what you mean about a good laydown …

A few nights ago, live 1/2, with $225, I raised in EP with AdQd. MP reraised ( about the same stack as me ), short stack in LP re-reraised all-in to $70 or so. I thought hard … but laid it down. initial raiser called. They both had AK and split the pot. Felt really good!

The guy next to me said “wow, I could never have laid AQ down there” … I thought ‘I know you couldn’t’ :-), and proceeded to take his stack over the next hour

The ‘R’ in REM has really advanced my game. Having trouble with ‘E’, but also gaining experience with ‘M’, value betting second pair or weak TP on the river ( works in with ‘R’ )

Thanks Ed, Sunny, and Matt.