Narrowing possible opponent hand ranges.

I know this is a fairly common problem. You're at an NL table, ring game, tournament, whatever, and you have like 6 opponents who you cannot put on a hand, because they will not raise, ever. (This is a horrible strategy, imho, they are just asking to eat large amounts of poo slowplaying all the time...but then sometimes it pays off if there's a river-maniac at the table.)

In short, you just can't put these stones on a hand. They could have anything from a boat, to rags (which they have most of the time, except the one time you bet). What's the best way to protect yourself from them? How can you read their hand?

The question is, do you tend to try and gain information from these players (raising, check raising), or is it simply better to go on outdrawing them and winning small river pots, and getting knocked around by the occassional river monster.

I'm aware that the prevailing advice is to leave tight ring games in favor of looser ones, but sometimes you just don't have that option.

{This post has been removed}

I firmly believe that Fnord is right. You can easily make a profit at any game by playing more correctly than the other people.

However, I still stand by my belief. Loose at tight games and tight at loose games. I'm using logic to work this out and I'll explain myself.

Loose games:
You are playing against a lot of people who will see a lot of flops and call a lot of bets. You bide your time. The chances that you will get a great hand are very slim, because more people will see the flop. But when you do get your great hand, you will be able to get away with raising big and getting callers. Your pots will be much bigger,and when you stay tight, you won't loose much money when you don't play.

Tight games:
People here won't see as many flops. You won't have much action pre-flop so you can limp in with a lot of hands and try and catch flops. You can bluff people out more and steal blinds. The pots that you win will be smaller, but there should be a lot of them.

2 things to look out for when playing these:
1. Play well. Nothing will improve a game that you are playing weak or sloppy.
2. You will change the way a table plays. If you are ultra-tight, you will probably be earning respect with every fold and people will notice after a while. It's possible that you will get a few "respect" pots. You may also loosen up a tight table as you stay at it and use the same strategy. If this happens, you need to adjust your game. When people notice how you have loosened up, switch back to tight and vice-versa.

The most important thing is to realize what your opponent expects of you, and disappoint them.

Either Fnord's way, or this way will work out for the better. This is just giving a little extra edge in my opinion.

Poker Forum

Join Our Poker Community!

Poker Forum Index

Live Poker

Narrowing possible opponent hand ranges.

Poker Forum Index

Live Poker

Narrowing possible opponent hand ranges.