Attacking Capped Ranges

You have a weapon. It has the power to crush any opponent. In this article, let’s sharpen that weapon. Let’s learn to attack our competition in ways that cannot be beaten. Let’s learn to abuse weaknesses in our opponent’s game plan to scrape more winnings out of any game.

By identifying and attacking capped ranges, we are on our way to being untouchable gods of betting aggression. Capped ranges refer to times players are extremely unlikely to hold the nuts. Players are put into these positions because of play mistakes, because of particularly uncommon and dangerous board run outs, and because of how much opponents bet. All three concepts, when properly wielded, work together like an unbeatable weapon.

Play Mistakes

Each hand combination has its place in a complete game plan. That’s a daunting thought. It means that every decision you make at the table against every bet size on every board run out has a reaction. As is often the case when dealing with capped ranges, these reactions are rarely intuitive. In other words, the problems created by these “soft mistakes” often go unnoticed. These spots are typically why you see amateur players hemming and hawing with many of their decisions. Let’s check out a quick example to showcase the point.

You have called a raise preflop facing the player on the button from the big blind with sufficiently deep stacks (meaning that the distribution we use to call should include a healthy mixture of hand types). The flop is K 7 3, you check, and, as expected, on a disconnected king-high board, your opponent bets, continuing his pre-flop aggression. You have a hand good enough for a call, so you call. The turn is the A and you check, only to face another bet.Does that card worry you? What do you plan to do with a hand like 8 7? This turn card creates a perfect example of capped ranges in action. If you had made the play mistake of always folding your ace-high hands that miss the board, then it will be very difficult for you to call this turn bet with any confidence that you are ahead of your opponent. Of course, you could slow play, you might have played A-7 suited or A-3 suited for a call preflop and for a flop call, but those rare possibilities are simply wishful thinking combined with poor planning. And what about the possibility of facing a river bet after you play the guessing game on the turn? It all adds up to a difficult spot.

In order to avoid losing every time the turn is an ace, you should add a few combinations of hands with aces in them to your flop check-calling range. It’s important to understand that, while this spot is not a great one for you, the turn card is only rarely an ace. Also, keep in mind that it is even more rare for the turn to bring an ace if you do check and call the flop with an ace in your hand. However, occasionally adding aces to the flop check-calling distribution protects the calling player from abuse on this turn card. Keep in mind that your strategy comes at a cost, like check-folding those ace-high hands on the other turn cards if your opponent bets. If you create your strategy properly, then at least some of your hands on the turn should be happy to call future bets. That’s the secret for out of position play. Conversely, if your opponent does not protect himself on particular turn cards, then you may abuse him with nearly perfect information that he cannot have a strong hand.

Uncommon And Dangerous Board Run Outs

Most dangerous board run outs are extremely rare, which is a good thing for defending players. As board textures develop in ways that do not improve high equity holdings on earlier streets, the dynamic of power can violently shift from player to player. It’s your job as a poker player to determine this power shift, and to abuse it for your gain.
You want to identify when your opponent can be bluffing on these run outs and when he cannot be bluffing. In other words, can your opponent have enough bluffs in his distribution on extremely dangerous run outs for you to warrant giving more action? Calling with a particular frequency limits our opponent’s ability to bluff profitably. But, if your opponent is not bluffing enough, then the best you can do is fold. Folding has a value of $0 because you neither gain nor lose money.

Another way to consider the problem of uncommon run outs is that you should always be able to make profitable calls of your opponent’s bets with some frequency. In other words, because the different hands with which we call each have a unique value vis a vis your opponent’s betting distribution, and you do have to call in order to avoid your opponent exploiting you with bluffs, you need some hands with positive expectation on these rare run outs simply because you would otherwise fold your distribution and take the value of $0. So, rather than cranking up the slow plays with very strong hands, of which there are few combinations, you should practice adding hands to your calling range that do well on a variety of run outs. Let’s take a look at another example hand to showcase the point.

The set up is the same, a K 7 3 flop and you call a bet from your opponent, the preflop aggressor. This time, the turn is the 10. You check and call another bet. The river is the A and your opponent bets all-in for a little bit more than the pot. Good thing we have 9 8. Wait, what?

On this extremely rare board run out, consider the hands you play this way that reach the river. Mostly hands with a king in them that are vulnerable to your opponent’s potential flush, to his potential straight and to his potential pair of aces. If none of your hands can take the heat on this improbable board run out, then you have discovered a hole in your strategy.

Quickly, let’s take a step back from all these tricky spots to look at the big picture. Remember, we are talking about minimizing damage in very rare spots. This advice isn’t a license to be a huge fish (only a little fish)! An ancillary boon of playing extremely weak holdings deceptively to increase the value of your other holdings. Consider on the K 7 3 A turn that you have an easy fold with 9 8, a hand at the absolute bottom of your distribution with no chance of improving. It’s easy. Conversely, you have just as trivial of a call with a hand like A J that you might have also check-called on the flop. For another board run out, like the K 7 3 10, A 3 becomes an easy fold and 9 8 picks up enough equity and implied odds to be worth a deceptive call. Every hand combination has its place.

How Much Opponents Bet

Bet sizing also can cap ranges. We explored defending ourselves in spots where your opponent’s range is incredibly strong due to uncommonly dangerous-seeming board run outs; but, you need to account for the odds you are offered as well (or the odds you offer your opponent). Let’s look at a more funky example to help make sense of bet sizing and preparing for tricky opponents.

Your opponent’s goal is to maximize his value with good hands, but also to make you indifferent between calling and folding a bluff catcher, a hand that only beats bluffs. That is to say, that with a medium-strength hand, a hand that cannot beat a value bet, you need to call your opponent’s bet enough of the time to prevent him from bluffing profitably. Bet sizing comes into play if your opponent’s distribution is strong relative to the odds the defending player receives. Let’s see it in action.

Let’s say you check to your opponent on the river after having called a few bets on earlier rounds of betting. He bets 1 million times the size of the pot. What the heck type of hand should you use to call? While the game theory and math that go into answering that question specifically for a given bet size is beyond the scope of this article, what is clear is that you basically need the nuts to call such a large bet. If you are in a spot that you cannot have the nuts that often and if your opponent is not bluffing often enough with such a large size (there are not enough non-nut combinations in the entire deck at that point for you to call him!), then you must fold. Your range has been capped by your opponent’s bet size. Let’s check out a more common example from the poker tables to see this concept in action.

Your opponent raises on the button and you decide to call preflop from the big blind with a solid calling hand. The flop is 8 4 2 and you check and call your opponent’s flop bet. Now let’s pause to consider just what types of hands you might use to take that action, because those hand combinations determine your best play on future streets. Hands like 6-5 suited, hands with two hearts, any pair, and a few king and ace-high hands like A 3 sound like a great start. The turn is the Q, making the complete board 8 4 2 Q, and your opponent checks back. At this point, you are certain that his best hand is a queen with a bad kicker, and, of course, this player plans to give up with many of his weaker hands as well, like ace-high and worse. The river is the 7, and the action is on you. You decide to bet the size of the pot, which could make getting value tricky. Can you guess why?

After considering your flop check-calling distribution, you can see that this particular board run out, coupled with your opponent’s check on the turn, gives your distribution much more power in relation to your opponent’s distribution of weak hands and some weak top pairs. Meanwhile, you are able to have straights, flushes and a few two pair hands, but, more importantly, you have very few possible bluffs in your distribution, only the missed ace-highs. By betting such a large size, you effectively cap your opponent’s range, and even his strongest possible hands like Q-9 suited should be an easy fold because your bet is too large given what he understands about your flop calling distribution. Your solution: bet much smaller and in proportion to how often you actually have a hand that misses the board. You might consider another solution, adding more check-calling hands to your flop distribution, but again, you need to be careful here and remember that these dangerous board run outs happen only rarely. If you treat them as common, then those extra hands you add to your flop calling distribution end up costing you a flop call a lot more often than they save you a turn and/or river bet, for a long-term loss to your poker strategy.

Now you have some great tools to protect yourself from capping your ranges, and plenty of food for thought about how to be more nuanced with these strategies. From another perspective, you have a strong weapon to attack your competition when you notice mistakes they make in their game plans. Remember, capped ranges are a double-edged weapon. Play mistakes, uncommonly dangerous board run outs, and bet sizing all affect how players interact at the table; but, when knowledge of these concepts and capped ranges is put to use better than your opponent, you win you more money at the poker tables. ♠

Reid Young is a successful cash game player and poker coach. He is the founder of TransformPoker.com.