Terminology Definition

[Ragnar4]

To say a stack is "Polarized" means:

I think it means all in or Fold, and nothing between.

[Robb]

We generally say a "range" is polarized, which means it consists of very weak hands and very strong hands, and nothing in between. That doesn't imply all-in vs. fold, necessarily. You only get action on your strong hands (from thinking opponents) if there's a chance some weak hands are in there, too.

[Lukie]

usually it's used (often over-used or very poorly used, or used in situations where it needn't be used) in situations where you are taking a very aggressive line that you'd take with your best hands and some weaker stuff that still has some value (usually, definitely does not apply on the river but certainly applies to preflop 3-betting). Like a polarized 3-betting range from the SB might include 22 if we make the assumption that calling this given raise OOP is -ev, but we'd rather do it with 22 or 46s b/c it still has some value if they call... or more accurately, more value than something like 94o.

[Marshall28]

dont worry about polarizing or merging your range at 10nl ... all you need to know is that there are certain lines that can only be taken by a very strong hand or a bluff. for example, a bet on the flop gets called then you checkraiseallin on the turn. thats a very strong line, one i'd always consider to be a huge hand or a big bluff. that's polarization.