Practical range advice - exploit vs. balance
Posted by Lewis Harkes
Posted by
Lewis Harkes
posted in
Low Stakes
Practical range advice - exploit vs. balance
Hi guys,
I've been playing NL25 zoom (antes) lately and have noticed I'm folding too much to 3bets and 4bets. In trying to fix this, I've reviewed my 4b and 5b shove ranges. What I'm wondering about are some common default approaches to this spot vs. mostly unknown players, i.e. how to modify solver ranges to account for pool tendencies. For example, when I have a polarized range and raise in position (RFI, 3b, or 4b), I'm trying to defend about half of these and build a balanced range around my premiums, generally with suited blockers. But if an unknown is never 4bet-folding, bluffs make no sense. Is there a shortcut to approaching these spots without waiting for enough stats to come in?
Correct me if i'm wrong, but I think recs 3b/4b/5b too tight, compared to solver ranges. And if someone is reraising too tight, then carefully constructed and balanced continuing ranges are just getting exploited on later streets (or not maximizing overall EV) by very strong and never fold. For example, if their 4b range on the button vs. my SB 3b is too tight and value-heavy (say top 3%) and never folds, then in theory I should be happy to overfold to their 4bets, and never 5b bluff.
Once enough hands have been played and I can get more robust stats, adjusting would be more reasonable, but some practical advice would be much appreciated on pool tendencies and a general approach. My current thought it to stay tighter vs. unknowns until they show aggro, reg-y tendencies and then to default to a more balanced approach (so first old school Harrington; then GTO/Monker, then adjust based on stats).
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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This post is a bit confusing. You should have deafult ranges for rfi, 3bet, 4bet etc. Then as you gather info on villains you can adjust to exploit.
Thanks for heads up Zinom. Made some edits .
Basically, I'm worried that:
1) NL 25 / NL 50 pools don't play like solvers,
2) they might 3b/4b/5b too tight, but i'm not sure about pool tendencies,
3) if I'm following a default 4b/call off range or 5bai range produced by solvers against opponents who are too tight (i.e. not 4bet-folding or 5bet-bluffing enough), then I lose $$ on that portion of the tree and,
4) it can take a while for the stats to become reliable enough to adjust to while playing a -EV strat.
So,
I'm wondering what others are doing to adjust their ranges towards the pool...
If you follow gto ranges theres nothing they can do to exploit you. Example: if they 4bet to tight and you 5bet shove a gto range, then altho some hands will be -ev 5 bets, this brach of the gametree will happen less often so overall you dont lose ev. If you are unsure about pool tendencies just play gto ranges, dont worry about it. Then make adjustments as you develop reads.
I'm just being greedy!
I get the idea that GTO can't really be exploited, overall. But my thinking is this: given they 4bet too tight, we've already captured EV by 3betting and 5betting too wide (for their assigned range) is just giving back some of this captured EV.
So my take is that if we can get a sense of general tendencies, we can calibrate somewhat to capture more of the value with the 3b and lose less back on the 5b bluffs...
Assuming they rfi gto ranges (should be about accurate) but defend vs 3bet about gto but with a bias towards calling instead of 4 betting, then the exploit is to 4bet bigger with the stronger parts of your range (AK, QQ+) and smaller with the rest. The exploit to this is for villain to start 4betting aggressively vs teh smaller size up to the point where the strong hands in your range are about indifferent between the 2 sizings.
haha i posted something kinda related to this 2 months ago when i was playing 25nl. i found that it was very tight but its not something to worry about. yes if you 4b call off queens ep or mp vs bn, on average its kind of a lame spot, but theyre range should be AK/KK, and some QQ/JJ if they are following correct ranges. what you should really focus on is when you 4b and get called, since they always have a weak range capped at JJ/QQ. you can even bluff a lot too here post flop if they are soo tight they will fold JJ/TT to a triple barrel on a low board. at 25nl, everyone 5b jams AA so the ev of 4b calling hands like QQ and AK goes down a shit ton, but that also means post flop you dont have to worry about traps. and you get folds/calls 5x more often than a jam when you 4b. easy to dwell when all you do is run into AK, KK but when you think about it, it should happen lol. even if your equity vs their range is 45%, your pot share is only 90bbs, but its better than folding 20-27bbs.
also i wouldnt complicate your strategy and worry about gto so much at the lower stakes. focusing on where your opponents can be exploited is going to increase your winrate and growth compared to doing your best at replicating pio. gto seems like the pinnacle of poker since we have so many questions that are unanswered, and now it seems like we have access to them, but in reality gto is one part of the puzzle, you still have to go out and earn yourself a winrate by beating someone.
I think you've basically answered your own question. From what I've seen in my pools (10NL - probably similar for 25), 4b/5b ranges are very value heavy - some solvers suggest 5b shoving A5s at some %, but I think this never happens in reality vs population. Therefore, keeping 4b/5b ranges tigher than solver recommended would be the correct adjustment
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