How an opponent's range can change during a hand

Poker Strategy / Marcus Bateman / 26 January 2010 / Leave a Comment

Loose aggressive players rely on picking up lots of small pots, with the result that their pre flop and flop range of hands are very wide. However, most loose aggressive players slow down considerably when the pots start to grow very big, and as a result their range of possible hands shrinks considerably by the river.

One of the key mistakes weak poker players make is to not understand how a player's range changes during a hand, and this can lead them to make huge mistakes in his hands, simply because they do not understand the difference between a players range at the start of the hand compared to its end. This effect is perhaps at its most obvious in hold'em, and below I want to look at a classic player type that illustrates this well.

One of the most successful and enjoyable styles of play in hold'em is loose aggressive. This style demands a player makes more bets, and plays more hands than usual, using their superior skills at playing hands to outmanoeuvre their opponents despite the fact they frequently have the worst hand. However, weak players often seem to think that loose aggressive players are just always playing a very wide range, when in reality their range tightens considerably during a hand.

Loose aggressive players rely on picking up lots of small pots, with the result that their pre flop and flop range of hands are very wide. However, most loose aggressive players slow down considerably when the pots start to grow very big, and as a result their range of possible hands shrinks considerably by the river.

Most weak players seem to think that just because someone is loose in some pots, that they will be loose in all of them, which is very often not the case. Most winning loose aggressive players are very loose in small pots, but actually quite tight in big pots, hoping their pre flop and flop image gives them considerable action on their big bets on the turn and river. Understanding how a players range changes is crucial to taking on players at the middle and higher limits, where a players image is usually much more complex than it first appears.

At the lowest stakes, tight players are generally tight all the time, and loose players loose at all stages of the hand. As the stakes increase though, players ranges change considerably depending on the size of the pot. Always remember that big bets generally need/mean big hands in no limit and pot limit games, and understanding how this affects good players around you is crucial to staying afloat against them.

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