Card Player TV Video Spotlight -- Phil Galfond On Polarized Ranges

Phil Galfond is one of the most successful high stakes cash game players of the modern poker era, particularly excelling in online nosebleed-stakes cash games. Galfond has won more than $8.5 million online according to tracking sites, with another $1.8 million in live tournament wins and a World Series of Poker gold brace also under his belt. Obviously, Galfond knows what he’s talking about when it comes to poker strategy.

Card Player TV caught up with the 28-year-old pro during the 2012 WSOP main event to discuss the poker strategy topic of “polarized ranges”. In somewhat oversimplified terms, a player’s range is polarize when they only bet or raise with their very strongest and very weakest holdings in a given situation, opting to check or call their medium-strength hands in order to control the size of the pot.

“People that play unpolarized are tougher to play against, but I don’t think that necessarily makes it a better strategy, especially in a field [like the WSOP main event].” said Galfond referring to the main event’s amateur-filled field. “In a tough tournament field you need to unpolarize your ranges because you are going to want to be three-betting, you’re going to be double and triple barreling. You just don’t have enough monster hands to be able to be doing that enough, otherwise you are just going to be bluffing nearly every time.”

To learn more about Galfond’s thoughts on playing with a polarized range, and why one might divert from this strategy to value bet more thinly, check out the video below:

Related Articles

Jonathan Little: When Should You Turn Pro?

Strategy With Jonathan Little: Basic Hand Reading

Strategy: 8 Tips For Mastering Online Tournaments

Most Viewed Articles