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This is part 3 of identifying what the hell my range is. This has been a fun exercise because I'm not only plugging some obvious leaks, but I'm starting to think about hands in terms of my range vs villain's range and the equity balance of each, rather than my two cards vs... whatever the hell villain might have. Here's another quote from Don't Be a Poker Pansy that really hits the nail on the head.
 Originally Posted by DaNutsInYoEye
If you make an active effort to really learn the game, you'll also find it more enjoyable. When you first begin playing it's often all about making money. Ok, that really doesn't change as you become better and move up in stakes. What does happen though is that you'll find the game to be more intellectually stimulating. Following charts and playing ABC poker becomes boring rather quickly. As you start to add additional levels of thinking, the game takes on an entirely different dynamic. It becomes a mental exercise. It becomes poker.
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IDENTIFYING HERO'S RANGE Part 3 - THE BLINDS
I don't understand why it's referred to as "defending our blinds". Once the blind is posted it's part of the pot and no longer ours. There's nothing to "defend" since it's not our money. The person attempting the "steal" is generally opening with a very wide range and we have the option to exploit it. That's it. We're not defending anything. That being said, we're still OOP and that sucks, especially for someone like me who doesn't know what to do half the time so I just fold preflop and save myself the frustration of not knowing what to do postflop. Yep, that's a leak. And I certainly won't get any better if I don't at least try to adjust by thinking about the exploitation of villain's range in these spots.
Even still, being OOP means it's harder to extract value with my strong hands because my range is face up. It's also harder to pot control with marginal hands that have showdown value. Therefore, if I'm deciding whether to call or fold, folding is probably better to save myself from making an expensive postflop mistake.
Isolating from the Blinds
Villains will limp/call with much more frequency when they have position so isolating them from the blinds should be done with a conservative value range, something like {JJ+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+}. There are certainly some passive fish that I can open up that range to include hands like A8, KT, QJ, etc. as long as we'll be headsup on the flop. But for the most part, tight is right.
When facing an open limp from the SB though, I like to raise almost 100% of the time with ATC. They fold more than enough to make it profitable, and the times they do call I get to see a flop in position where literally any board combination hits my range. When they limp in this spot they want to see a cheap flop with a very weak hand. Don't let them do it. Ever. In time, the SB will stop limping and just hand over the money. They rarely adjust by raising with garbage hands, so when they do limp-3bet or attempt a steal, give them credit.
Facing a Raise from Early or Middle Position
This is not a spot where I want to call a lot because I will bleed money. The number one rule is to know thy villain. I would much rather 3bet than cold call and go headsup, OOP, without the initiative. If I don't feel comfortable 3betting, then I should probably just fold. This also isn't a place to set mine because it's much harder to get paid off. Over-calling in multiway pots is fine with medium pocket pairs and big drawing hands like KJs as long as I don't forget why I'm playing them. Stacking off with KJ in the BB on K97r in a 4-way raised pot is spew. Tread carefully with marginal hands.
Facing a Raise from Late Position (vs a steal)
The question is are they raising with their standard range in late position or are they truly stealing with a ton of trash hands? If their ATS is something like 25%, they're not really stealing. They're just opening hands their comfortable playing in late position if called. I can compare range equity all day long but it's foolish to think that I'll be able to steal the hand away postflop enough to be profitable. I think folding a lot of speculative hands here is fine. By speculative, I mean hands like A5s, A8o, J9s, Q9o, etc.
If they truly are stealing with trash, it's time to think about opening up my 3bet range. But I need to know these two things: (1) how often does villain fold to a re-steal, and (2) how often does he fold to cbets. If villain never folds, open up my value range but don't 3bet bluff. If villain folds entirely too much, 3bet much wider and instead, think about calling with big hands. I don't want him folding to a 3bet when I hold AA and he has K7 on some random K-high board. We'll miss the bus to value town.
Facing a Raise from the SB When Hero is the BB
Again, this comes back to whether they're stealing with trash or just opening up a solid range. From what I can tell though, villains don't steal nearly as much from the SB. I know that's a generalization but it's true. The only difference here is that I have position and close the action. Therefore I think a standard range of playable hands here would be something like {22+, A8s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo}. Just always put villain on a range before deciding to play the hand.
Small Blind Play
If the BB folds a lot to steals and it's folded to me in the SB, I'm opening my standard range from the BTN of {22+, A2s+, K8s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, A2o+, K8o+, Q8o+, J9o+, T9o, 98o, 87o}. If he folds like 90% of the time, I'll open damn near ATC until he starts adjusting. Conceivably I'd like some kind of postflop equity if called but if they're just going to give it up a huge percentage then I could check/fold any flop and still be more than profitable. Finding these types of players and sitting to their immediate right is like printing free money (same goes for playing on the button obviously).
I know a leak of mine is completing the SB in limped pots with drawing hands because I'm getting 4:1 odds or whatever. It can't really be all that profitable. My hand rarely hits and when it does my immediate pot odds are shit when facing a bet, not to mention I'm out of position and it will be extremely difficult to get paid off. Being overly optimistic about implied odds here is retarded. If I'm sitting with a bunch of droolers, then game on but in general, limiting myself from completing the SB can't be bad thing.
Squeezing
I think squeezing is something I should have knowledge of but not go ape-shit with it at the lowest micro-stakes levels. Yes, it looks very strong but villains don't often care. Don't squeeze the nits with super tight ranges, or against short-stacks if I don't plan on stacking off. Same rule applies when squeezing with T8s vs a loose-passive open. It's not profitable. Instead, I think I should be looking for spots to squeeze against villains who over-isolate limpers or when the CO raises and the BTN just calls.
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