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| StasKo |
assigning rangeshere's the question:can you assign a range to an opponent who happens to run like god? lately im having a preety big downswing and a lot of times i find opponents calling or raising me in a lot of spots. so from a frequency perspective i assign those opponents with a wide range (bluffs, floats and of course value hands). but everytime we go to showdown, opponent has a good hand. this occurence makes me rethink about my ability to assign ranges. am i too optimist? is it possible to put an opponent on a range when he hits so many boards?? thnx! |
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| Borg7 |
Sure, why would you be unable to define ranges just because ur opponent is hitting alot? | ||
| StasKo |
because of frequency.
lets rephrase the question: how can you tell the difference between a wide calling/raising range and an unknown opponent who happens to run like god? for example: you start a match by minraising from the button. in the first 10-20 hands he almost always called your button minraises. is he a loose player? or he just keep getting decent-to-good starting hands and in reality he is more tight than you think? or as another example, you find yourself on the flop facing the fifth in a row check-raise. is your opponent bluffy or just keep hitting good hands? and these are not fictional situations. in the last few matches i get raised, check raised, face a 3bet or called in a lot of spots. so i start to think that my opponent is loose and therefore i make lighter calls or bet for value with weaker holdings only to find out my opponent has a pretty good hand at showdown. |
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| Borg7 |
You can define villain's ranges to your best knowledge. The range you define will be your perception of his range. Sure this can be far off but that's irrelevant. All you can do is try to come as close as possible to his real ranges. | ||
| U Cook Socks |
Okay, I'm not in the same league as Borg or anything like that, but I will write some stuff, and if Borg disagrees, then totally ignore me 
For example, if the villain calls the first 5 of your button raises, sure he can just have had the right hands that fit a tight players calling range, but it is more likely that he has a tight calling range, this should become clearer as the match goes on further. We know nothing for sure, without seeing a showdown, but you have to start and make some assumptions pretty early on. If you get check/raised 5 times in a row, then it is very likely that the player is playing back at you, although the sample size is small, it is very hard to hit boards in HU poker, the chances are he hasn't hit 5 boards well enough to C/R you for value. He could have, but it's unlikely, so that's another assumption you can make. Take note of board textures and sizings too. You just have to use every bit of information you have got, and try and piece things together, there will be players that are really transparent, and easy to define their range, others will be more tricky, but you can still do it. You start defining their range from pre/flop, and with every action, try and narrow the range down. It's not easy, if it was easy, everyone would be good at poker. Most micro stakes players wont even be thinking about your range, they will just be looking at their own two cards, but as you get to play better players, what they think your range is, becomes important too. |
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| kierkegaard1 |
he might be hitting flops hard, but its more likely that he is just aggro if its the 5th c-r in a row. sure, sometimes you will run into a player that is hitting boards that frequently, but more often than not it is a wide range and so treating it as such and adapting to that is +ev.
its like calling a shove with KK, the player will have AA occasionally, but other holdings are more likely |
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| Borg7 |
I agree with everything that Blazing and kierk said. 
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| StasKo |
thnx for the responses guys!
so i dont need to feel bad about my play when i play back lighter against an opponent who c/r me 5 times in a row only to find out that he flopped a monster?
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