When we take a look at the
best poker site players
in the world, there are some qualities that come to mind
immediately. The top guys, whether they are tournament or cash
game players, always have a great feel for the game. What that
means is that they not only know the statistics and the numbers
of each play, but they also know how to read their opponent.
Putting a man on a hand is something that can only be accomplished with experience and a sense of what is going on at the table. When you think about putting your opponent on a hand, you might think about figuring out his exact hand, but that’s not realistic. The idea is to understand what range of hands your opponent might have.
Poker is a pretty simple game in one sense. There are only a
couple of actions you can take each time it’s your turn. You can
raise, call, or fold. Obviously no limit gives you the ability
to bet different amounts, but most people will keep their bets
in standard levels over the long run. This can also become a
problem for you, though. Because there are only so many actions
a player can take, most players will do similar things with a
wide variance of hands.
So what can you do to put your opponent on a hand? We need to
both understand and implement the understanding of hand ranges.
The range is defined as each and every one of the different
hands that a guy might make a play with. Think about what hands
you would raise in early position with at a full ring game.
That’s your range for that particular situation. Every player is
different, though, so the key becomes identifying each player’s
possible range for each given situation.
You will run into some players who have a tight range of hands. They will only play premium or very solid hands in those situations, so you would be well served to fold your bad hands, make raises with your great hands, and be prepared to fold if something good and scary hits the board, but misses your hole cards.
Putting your man on a hand gets much more complicated after the
flop, though, so you have to have a good feel and understanding
to play after that point. Let’s take an example hand to
understand this idea a little bit better.
Perhaps you are holding a pair of Jacks in middle position in a
$400 no-limit cash game. The first to act fold over to you, and
you throw in a total bet of $14. Everyone folds around, and the
big blind makes the call.
Sitting in the big blind is a player who we are relatively familiar with. He’s not a tight player, but not loose enough that we’d call him a dumb player. He has a tendency to see a lot of flops, but doesn’t bet particularly hard on the board. Sometimes, he can play marginal hands a little bit too hard. We know that our player has just over $300 when the hand begins, and we have him completely covered.
If I am an aggressive player who likes to raise a good bit, then
my opponent probably knows this. When poor players see you raise
a great deal, they will have more desire to finally stand up and
make a play against you.
I’m comfortably aware that this player has a huge range heading
to the flop, which comes out with a Ten of spades, five of
diamonds, and a three of hearts. I love this flop for my Jacks,
and I’m reasonably sure that unless he has hit a set on the
flop, he has a very low chance of improving his hand to beat
mine. After he checks it over to me, I make a small bet of $20.
Why do I do this?
I do this because a big bet would make him lay down a medium pocket pair, which I have dominated. There is no chance that he is folding a set. If he has a ten, then he will probably call right away, but a big bet would make it unlikely that you’d get any value past the flop.
In this situation, we are trying our best to get value out of the hand, because we’ve put him on a hand that’s not as good as ours. Likewise, we know that if he does have us beat, we will have little of recovering, so he is either way ahead or way behind. In this instance, understanding hand ranges was absolutely a key in our being able to make a bet sizing decision.