The Poker Hand Critic: Keeping Your Range Wide Against Thinking Opponents

The Poker Hand Critic is a new series by online pro “gutter23,” one of the top mid-stakes players in the game today. The Poker Hand Critic will break down a hand, street by street, offering up his analysis on all of the action.

The following hand comes from a nine-handed, $3,000 max buy-in $5-$10 game at the Aria in Las Vegas. The game had recently started and the table is filled with local regulars and one recreational player.

The Players

Hero (UTG, $3,000): My image in the first few orbits had been tight and aggressive. A few of the local grinders recognized me from previous visits and should perceive me as a winning, thinking player.

Villain (Button, $3,000): Young mid-20s male who is loose-aggressive and a winning player. He is capable of both bluffs and thin value bets and generally an opponent I would try to avoid. We have played together in the past but have no history of big pots.
The Action

Hero (A A) opens to $30.
Villain raises to $140.
Hero calls.

I make my standard opening bet to $30 and get three-bet by the Villain. Most regulars in my situation would four-bet here but I prefer to call and my rationale is as follows:

If I four-bet from under-the-gun, my value range will be very narrow (A-A, K-K, A-K suited). The problem with having a narrow range is that my hand is face-up and we are very deep. The villain can call my raise, play the pot in position and put me in many uncomfortable situations post-flop.

Playing with a deep stack out of position, in a three-bet pot, against an aggressive player, is very difficult. Online players who are accustomed to playing 100 big blind stacks often fail to adjust their strategies accordingly for live poker. When playing online, if I open under-the-gun for 2.5 big blinds and the button three-bets to 7.5 big blinds, I can comfortably four-bet to 18 big blinds with both my value hands and bluffs and either call or fold to an all-in.

Live poker bet sizings are often much larger, so when I open for three big blinds, and the button raises to 14 big blinds, my four-bet would be to about 32 big blinds. This makes my bluffs very expensive and will allow the villain to frequently call as they will be getting great implied odds with about 270 big blinds behind.

Since I’m infrequently four-betting my under-the-gun hands against a loose-aggressive button three-bet, I will fold or call with the majority of my range. I will call with queens, kings, aces, A-K, A-Q suited, A-J suited and small to medium pocket pairs hoping to flop a set. Calling in this situation allows my range to remain wide, while also deceptively including monster hands.

Furthermore, by calling I keep all bluffs in my opponent’s range which might fold to a four-bet. Given my opponents loose-aggressive strategy, he will often double or triple barrel if he senses weakness.

Against tighter opponents and especially recreational players, I will four-bet aces in this spot. Their three-bets are usually for value and they will unlikely fold to further aggression. Due to the limited hands in their range, I will be able to value bet most board textures on future streets without fear of being bluffed or outplayed.

Flop ($295): J 10 8

Hero checks.
Villain bets $220.
Hero calls $220.

This is not the prettiest flop for my hand, and I feel the best option is to check-call. Folding is not an immediate option as my opponent will be value betting with worse hands and may continue his bluffs. Check-raising doesn’t make sense and I’d be over representing my hand and will likely only get called by a better hand or a hand with a lot of equity.

Turn ($735): 6

Hero checks.
Villain bets $440.
Hero calls $440.

The 6 is a good card for me as it shouldn’t improve our opponent’s hand. Folding the turn is too tight as this particular villain will often value-bet K-K and Q-Q and could easily be barreling with A-Q or A-K. It’s certainly a possibility that he out flopped us, but I’m not convinced at this point.

River ($1,615): 4

Hero checks.
Villain bets $880.
Hero calls $880.

The 4 is an insignificant card which doesn’t complete flush or straight draws and I elect to check-call the bet of $880. The villain quickly says nice call, which usually infers that they were bluffing, and mucks when I turn over aces. At no point did I consider raising the river for value as he will fold all worse hands and call with better. Folding this river is not a reasonable option against an aggressive opponent, who is capable of triple-barrel bluffing, while getting approximately 3-1 pot odds.

By calling preflop with aces and disguising my hand, I extracted a huge amount of value. The key concept to take away from this hand is that when playing against thinking opponents, it’s always best to keep your range wide.

Gutter23 plays mid-stakes full ring cash games and has had a great deal of success over the past five years. He was named the low-stakes online player of the year by PokerTableRatings in 2011 and is one of the few cash game grinders who truly understands the nuances of both live and online poker.

You can send in your questions and comments to [email protected].

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