Visualizing Hand Ranges

[z28dreams]

Hey all,

I was just playing with PokerStove, and trying to get a feel for how often people hold certain types of hands depending on their preflop raising position. Below is what I came up with:

All are assuming you are vs. a tight/taggy player: (6max)

Early Position Ranges:

22-AA / AT-AKo / A9-AKs - 11%
only pairs - 5.9% (53% relative)
is suited - 1.9% ( 18% relative )
connected or 1 gapper - 3.6% ( 32% relative )

So, vs a tight player, about 1/2 the time you're up against
a pair, and only around 18% of the time you're up against suited cards.

32% of the time you're up against some kind of connected cards.


What we should note: If a decent player raises in early
position, we should rarely be afraid of flush draws.
Because they're also very likely to be holding a pair, it may make
more sense to exercise pot control on paired and raggy boards.


Late Position Ranges:
This varies a lot more on player, but here's what I used for this example:

22-AA, A2s-AKs, A6o-AKo, KT-KQ, J9-JT, 86-87, 78-79, 65, etc
Basically all small suited connectors except for the really low stuff,
and most of the suited one gappers. ~ 30.6%

Pairs - 5.9% ( 19% relative )
Suited - 9% ( 30% relative )
Connected or 1 gapper - 22% ( 73% relative )

What we learn:

In late position, villain is much more likely to be suited than if he was in early position
(around 50% more likely) However, this still only makes up 30% of his range. We're a lot more likely
to run into 2-pair and drawy type hands. We should be less worried about overpairs and sets,
because pairs now make up only a tiny percentage of our range.


Here's a visual breakdown to help picture villain's holdings:

EARLY positions:


xxxx = pairs
xxxx = non-pairs

x___ = suited
xxxx = non-suited

xx__ = connected/one-gapper
xxxx = non-conected/one-gapper


LATE positions:

x___ = paired
xxxx = non-paired

xx__ = suited
xxxx = non-suited

xxx_ = connected/one-gapper
x___ = non-connected/one-gapper


I'm going to follow this up with some hand examples to help put this information to good use and run the math.

[NL Newbie]

[ QUOTE ]
xxxx = pairs
xxxx = non-pairs

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a mistake?

As for the rest of it, interesting about the suited cards - although numbers are fairly useless unfortunatly.

WHat if the BB is 90VPIP and hes on the button? What if the BB is now 10VPIP and hes on button etc.

[z28dreams]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
xxxx = pairs
xxxx = non-pairs

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a mistake?

As for the rest of it, interesting about the suited cards - although numbers are fairly useless unfortunatly.

WHat if the BB is 90VPIP and hes on the button? What if the BB is now 10VPIP and hes on button etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, it's ok. I'm trying to show the ratio of cards visually ( it's roughly 1:1 pairs to non-pairs if you have an UTG raiser ).

Unfortunately for uSNL, a lot of players have no concept of position whatsoever, so all of their hand holdings look something like the late position range minus some of the smaller connectors.

The main idea to take away here is that while being positionally aware is an important concept, it does give away a lot of information about our holdings.

Against an early position raiser, we can be a lot less concerned about drawy type hands and bluff less into raggy boards.

I'd like to hear more thoughts on this, and possibly some hands posted.

[poincaraux]

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