To be successful in Texas Hold’em you must be able to think in terms of hand ranges, rather than single combinations.
This is a skill that takes a long time to perfect. Luckily there are a couple of tricks that you can use to increase your win rate along the way.
There are two concepts that you can use to maximise your profits in the majority of post flop situations.
- Understanding who has range advantage
- Identifying a capped range
Being aware of both of these areas will allow you to develop a feel for when aggression is your best option.
Consider when your opponent has a stronger range than you, and your actions indicate a capped range. This puts you at a serious disadvantage and playing aggressively against an aware opponent is now a clearly losing strategy.
Hand Ranges – Who Has the Advantage
To know which player has range advantage you must first know what each player’s opening hand ranges look like.
These hand ranges are then assessed in combination with the board texture.
For example, look at the opening ranges of two players. The first chart is when the action folds to the hero on the button.
This chart is how the big blind reacts to an open raise.
You can see how on board textures such as ace high, king high, and queen high the button has much better equity through their range. To become a solid small stakes player you must work with applications such as Equilab and assess ranges in as many situations as possible.
Capped Ranges
A capped range is a range that has a reduced upper limit where the strongest hands are unlikely or not possible. Knowing when your opponent has a capped range is a significant advantage because you are then able to turn up the pressure.
Imagine if you have all of the possible monster hands but your opponent can never have more than a weak two pair.
This knowledge will allow you to steal pots that previously you thought you had no business winning.
Identifying when a range is capped usually relies on two different observations. You can spot your opponent making an action that they would never have made with a strong hand. Or you can assess that their opening range didn’t contain any of the relevant combos to begin with.
A classic example is often seen in full ring cash games. These games play so tight that small pairs and small suited connectors are not normally played from early position.
This means that on low connected boards a cold caller can have all of the nutted hands but the pre flop raiser cannot.You must also factor in that the caller is unlikely to have premium pairs in their range too.
Therefore, not only must you pay close attention to the ranges of the players, but the action is crucial in determining who has a capped range or overall range advantage.
Pay Attention to Who You’re Playing Against
All of the above information comes with a warning. It is critical that you correctly assess the competency of your opponents when using these concepts.
It is a terrible idea to use increased aggression to try to get a calling station recreational player to fold. You might have a huge range advantage, but that’s no good if your opponent never folds any pair.
Even if they have a heavily capped range you shouldn’t try to take advantage. Your extra profit will come those times you can call down lighter without fear of running into the nuts.
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