Thoughts about my HU pre-flop ranges?

Regarding your BTN opening range, unless I messed up are you meaning to say you will only be opening roughly 37% of hands?

And defending from the BB with only ~23% of hands?

Because if that's the case, that's entirely too tight for HU. You need to be opening WAY more buttons as a default.

And if you are only defending 23% of hands from the BB, then any 3x button open is going to show a profit regardless of if they give up everytime they see the flop, as they would be risking 2.5bb to win 4, and thus only need folds 62.5% of the time.

I'm not all that good at HU (or well even poker), but I'd say at the start of a HU match, you'd be better off having an 80-100% BTN opening range. If it turns out the villain is folding his BB frequently, that's good. If not, then even with your weak range you still have position postflop and hopefully a skill advantage, and can begin to gather reads/stats quicker.

Originally Posted by Stacks

I'd say at the start of a HU match, you'd be better off having an 80-100% BTN opening range. If it turns out the villain is folding his BB frequently, that's good. If not, then even with your weak range you still have position postflop and hopefully a skill advantage, and can begin to gather reads/stats quicker.

This.

Your minimum continuing range from the BB is determined by Villain's bet size.

Get VERY familiar with the equation { bet to you }/{ total amount someone will win if you call }.
This is most commonly expressed in poker as bet/(bet + pot). KNOW THIS. Memorize the common instances of this equation. Here's a start:

Hero is BB, Villain is SB, HU:
Villain limps: 0/(0 + 2) = 0%
Hero continues with 100% range.

Villain min-raises: 1/(1 + 3) = 25%
Hero continues with at least 75% range.

Villain raises to 2.5bb: 1.5/(1.5 + 3.5) = 30%
Hero continues with at least 70% range.

Villain raises to 3bb: 2/(2 + 4) = 33%
Hero continues with at least 67% range.


I am out of time, and must leave for work.... I have a sneaking suspicion that I took this from the wrong perspective... the math is probably good, but maybe taking it from Hero's perspective is bad... someone before me took it from Villain's perspective, I think...


Gotta go. I'll check back on this, though.

Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey

This.

Your minimum continuing range from the BB is determined by Villain's bet size.

Get VERY familiar with the equation { bet to you }/{ total amount someone will win if you call }.
This is most commonly expressed in poker as bet/(bet + pot). KNOW THIS. Memorize the common instances of this equation. Here's a start:

Hero is BB, Villain is SB, HU:
Villain limps: 0/(0 + 2) = 0%
Hero continues with 100% range.

Villain min-raises: 1/(1 + 3) = 25%
Hero continues with at least 75% range.

Villain raises to 2.5bb: 1.5/(1.5 + 3.5) = 30%
Hero continues with at least 70% range.

Villain raises to 3bb: 2/(2 + 4) = 33%
Hero continues with at least 67% range.


I am out of time, and must leave for work.... I have a sneaking suspicion that I took this from the wrong perspective... the math is probably good, but maybe taking it from Hero's perspective is bad... someone before me took it from Villain's perspective, I think...


Gotta go. I'll check back on this, though.

I'm really not any good at math, so could be entirely incorrect. But I believe if we are considering how often we should be continuing from an optimal standpoint, we should be looking at it from villain's perspective. That is, if he minraises, risking 1.5bb to win a pot of what will be 3bb, he only needs to win 50% of the time. Thus we need to continue >50% of the time or else he instantly profits.

Likewise if he opens 3x, risking 2.5bb to win 4bb, I believe we will need to continue 37.5% or more to deny him an instant profit with all his bluffs.

Surely someone better at this can chime in.