Adjusting ranges

	Stealing the blinds is so important that you should be willing to raise almost every unopened button until the blinds adjust

One of the reasons good poker players prevail in most circumstances is that they know how to find the edge by adapting to different conditions, and one important aspect of this is adjusting your starting-hand ranges. But to do that we must start from a solid foundation. So what are good opening ranges in six-max cash games?

To make things simpler, let’s make a couple of basic assumptions. Firstly, all the players at the table have full stacks. Secondly, the table is a mixture of LAG-fish (players that exercise too much aggression with marginal holdings), TAG-fish (players that play far too tightly with far too narrow a range), fish (passive players that are either too tight or too loose) and a couple of good players.

Keep in mind that as you move up through the levels your opponents will be able to narrow down your hand range pretty accurately, so you must always incorporate some marginal hands in all positions to keep them guessing.

PLAYING UNDER THE GUN

Under the gun (UTG) is the most vulnerable seat from which to enter a pot, as you are out of position and have far less pot control. As you move up through the levels, position becomes more and more important. At the $2/$4 no-limit level and above you realise how exploitable you are when out of position against even half-decent players.

As a result you should only really play your best hands when under the gun, plus the odd bluff to keep up appearances. A UTG range that is not too tight but is definitely profitable is as follows:

• 7-7+
• A-J suited+
• K-Q suited+
• 7-8 suited+

The latter hands (or some other goofy hands you like playing) should occasionally be dropped into the mix just to keep your range wide. While this range is definitely on the tighter side for six-max games, I just hate being out of position and bleeding money.

ADJUSTING YOUR UTG RANGE

If you are at a tighter table you can open your starting range up a bit more, including all pairs and K-Q, plus a few more suited connectors. The reason is that your hands will be fairly easy to play post-flop, as you are showing serious strength by raising UTG and have the initiative in the hand.

At a nitty table you won’t be involved in too many multi-way pots either, so you can continuation-bet a high percentage of the time and elicit a lot of folds. Obviously if you face any major resistance you should fold. In addition, you should keep slowing down and speeding up your play to prevent anyone from exploiting your adjustments.

If you are at a loose table on the other hand (which will include most $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 tables), you have to tighten up your range and get rid of the more disguised hands like suited connectors. These won’t flop big enough often enough in multi-way pots to be profitable. Stick to high card value, where you will make bigger pairs with better kickers, which should enable you to extract money. Lose the suited connectors and possibly even 7-7/8-8 and replace those hands with the likes of A-10 offsuit and K-Q offsuit. Playing against fish, you basically need to get in with strong top pair/good kicker hands that will enable you to extract chips.

MID-POSITION

Middle position is a little easier to play, but not by a lot. You still want to be playing the top end of your range here and not much more. Usually I keep a fairly tight mid-position range, but if the table is playing too tight, if there are players likely to tilt or if the stacks are more than 150 big blinds deep I would recommend opening up your range significantly. Again, you will have the initiative in the hand in this situation, plus deeper stacks give you more manoeuvrability on later streets.

RE-RAISING IN MID POSITION

Most players’ UTG raising ranges are tight, and as such you should only really be three-betting in mid-position with Q-Q+ and A-K. The problem with J-J and A-Q is that you are never sure whether you are ahead or crushed.

If your table is relatively lively you can re-raise Q-Q, J-J and even 10-10 for value. But versus a tight player you cannot be sure if you are bluff-raising or value-raising, which can be confusing down later streets. It is fine to flat-call with these hands.

PLAYING IN THE CUT-OFF

In the cut-off you can really start to open up your range. The main point now is that you are very often going to have position on your opponents. Position is nine-tenths of the law. Now we can start isolating bad players that limp and re-raising middle-position openers. A standard six- max raising range in the cut-off looks something like this:

• All your mid-position range
• All pairs
• 5-6 suited+
• J-10 offsuit+
• A-2 through A-5 suited

The Ace-rag hands are really powerful in position as you can put immense pressure on players on some boards and always have good equity.

ADJUSTING YOUR CUT-OFF RANGE

You can add a few more hands to your cut-off range depending on the table, your image and how often you are being played back at from the blinds. Because being in position is so fantastic you can profitably raise the following in most games, unless you’ve just sat down at a random table with no background on the other players:

• Suited one-gappers (i.e. hands such as 7-9 and 8-10)
• High suited two-gappers (hands such as J-8+)
• A-x suited

The ability to flop a flush draw plus overcards is a huge advantage. You can put lots of pressure on players with a flush draw and will frequently hit some kind of combo draw as well. You should note, however, that adding a bunch of hands in the cut-off is only useful if you are at a good table. If you are getting played back at a lot by the button and blinds then don’t raise them. Tighten up a bit – at least until your image is repaired.

Remember: keep changing gears. Don’t just keep pressing the ‘pot’ button in late position because you will become exploitable, and you really don’t want people playing back at you. A solid image can be very useful at times, particularly at looser, more aggressive tables.

RE-RAISING IN THE CUT-OFF

To re-raise a mid-position raiser you usually need to maintain a high ratio of value raises to bluff raises. Something like four value raises to every one bluff raise will really keep the pressure on.

Even in the cut-off you don’t really want to be three- betting with junk Broadway hands like K-J and Q-10, but you can definitely add some more suited connectors. Your value-betting range should now include 9-9+, A-J suited and K-Q suited, as you will have the initiative and position.

PLAYING ON THE BUTTON

This is the most profitable seat at the table, so you’ll want to play a lot of hands here. All you are really after is to nick the blinds and isolate any weak players limping, so you don’t need to think twice about raising something playable such as Q-8 suited or 3-5 suited on the button.

Stealing the blinds is so important that you should be willing to raise almost every unopened button until the blinds adjust. And when they do, simply tone it down a little then hammer them again once they have cooled off.

ADJUSTING YOUR BUTTON RANGE

At tighter tables, you can probably open with any two cards on the button. At looser tables, this simply gets you into a lot of spots where you feel compelled to fire another barrel on the turn. If in doubt, tighten up. If you still get no respect, completely change your range and go back to playing solid ABC poker – it is the logical adjustment.

RE-RAISING ON THE BUTTON

Generally this is where you should bluff-raise the most and where you can get the most out of line. As you will be last to act on every street you can be confident you are getting the best out of the situation a lot of the time.

At $1/$2 and $2/$4, employing an occasional squeeze play against a mid-position raiser and a cut-off caller is very effective. It simply looks like a very strong move, and until your opponents recognise what you are up to you can get away with blue murder. Always be aware of the table dynamic, but you can almost certainly get away with a ratio of three value re-raises to two bluff re-raises.