Putting your opponent on a range of hands

[R3M0T3]

How do i do this?

[sapol]

This looks like a very wide question but I'll try to give you some tips to start with:
- evaluate how tight/loose your opponent is. This will help you determine which starting hands he plays
- try to see how he plays each type of hand. does he limp with pocket pairs? does he raise big when he has a monster? does he reraise AK?
- after the flop you want to reduce the initial range. ask yourself questions like: does he cbet this hand? would he check raise with that hand?

I hope this helps you

[basementproject]

Evaluate your opponent's general skill level and make an educated guess, based on your experience playing him, as to what his potential holdings are given his actions.

i.e. If he 3-bets, evaluate what other hands you've seen him 3-bet with while playing together, and make an inference.

If you are playing under 25NL, you shouldn't worry a whole lot about this- play your own cards at micros.

If you're at 50 and up, you should probably invest in PokerTracker and Pokerace HUD, so you can easily and concretely put opponents on ranges based on objective and cumulative information.

[R3M0T3]

What happens when you start to go live. There wont be able to use pokertracker etc. Is it better off to learn the manual way rather than using the stats of poker tracker?

[gregorio]

When you go live you play one table at a time and get 30 hands an hour so you it is easy to pay attention to everything that's going on and get reads. Online, you play 4+ tables and a few hundred hands an hour, so PT just helps you keep track of everything giong on.

[basementproject]

What Greg said is really accurate.

I myself usually play 9 tables at once, so nearly impossible for me to pay attention to any given player on a table. The stats I have on display at each table for each player are very often my only reads.

Mind you, when I play only one table at a time, I can get a very good idea of who's playing what and how. This translates to live as well, as a matter of fact I find it easier to put ranges on opponents live, due to the fact that there's really nothing to do at the table but concentrate on the game.

It's an important skill to be able to read players and notice patterns, which is why I'd reccomend any online player spend some time grinding one table at a time. But when you're ready to get into multi-tabling, or higher stakes, you want some stats to at least help you verify your manual reads.

[mecbluefugate]

when I am playing at the micros I oftentimes will start to put my opponent on a range and then think ... "ahh man, its 2nl, he could have anything." is this wrong?

[basementproject]

Yes, this is totally wrong. That line of thinking is what causes a lot of people to lose their bankrolls at the low low levels.

Don't think about what your opp has at all at 2NL or 5NL. Think about what you have. If he's cold calling your raise preflop and then all of a sudden pushing all in on the flop, and you've made TPTK, push that [censored]. Push your hands with no remorse, and never call down raises with something like A high just because you think he's bluffing.

[CrustyFace]

I think a decent way of doing it is to first of all think about what hands you'd play the way he is playing his hand. Chances are that you play differently to the guy so once you have your range on his play narrow or widen it according to how he plays.

[PantsOnFire]

Let's talk preflop to keep this simple.

You start with the normal poker player, the one who has read a book and has normal starting requirements. For example, when he is UTG he will raise with JJ-AA and AK, AQs and sometimes TT. He will limp with AJs and 77-TT and fold the rest.

So there you go, you have a range. Again for the average player, this range will change depending on his position and what the action was in front of him.

You should at least know what the average player does in each situation. Now you need to adjust that range as you learn about a player. If he is loose, you will need to add to the range and if he is tight, you can reduce the range.

Also you can learn specifics about a player like he likes to slowplay AA and KK or somebody is always limping with two suited cards or a guy loves any A, or a guy has a 100% open-raise percentage from button and CO, etc. Some players disregard their position so their range could be the same whether they are UTG or CO. Some players never call a raise with small PP, some always do. Some never 3 bet with AA or KK, some 3 bet with a wider range. The list is endless.

If you are ranging hands in a basic manner, you cannot make really tough decisions well. If you can narrow down a range, then you will make better decisions. Keep in mind however that most of your opponents aren't even thinking about your hand let alone ranging you so even basic ranging will give you an overlay. Also keep in mind that bad players don't necesarily play in a normal manner so it can be difficult to range them, especially after the flop.

Is that what you were looking for?