Polarized and depolarized

I think you are asking a very important question!

Im not completely sure that you understand the distinction between polarzied/depolarized, so I will explain my understanding to the best of my ability.

Polarized: Especially relevant/common in 3betting ranges. Say you on the button vs a cuttoff open. A common strategy on the button would be to use a polarized 3betting strategy and call with the middle strength hands with good playability. So you would 3bet something like QQ+, AK, Axs, 86s,97s,KTo etc and call with AQ, 22-JJ, 87s-KQs, etc. You could 3bet TT,JJ also, im just giving an example...

You would use this strategy vs a weak tight cutoff - a weak reg essentially.

Depolarized: Take the same situation. Instead of 3betting premiums and 'garbage' you 3bet with say the top 13% of all hands and fold the rest. This means you would 3bet KJo, ATo as well as 88.

Its best to use this strategy vs a fish who will call 3bets OOP a lot so you want to bloat the pot with decent hands and crush his weak rage in position.

p.s. you should never 3bet J5o. There's better 'garbage' you can chose from to 3bet.

Hope this helps.

I prefer to polarize my 3betting range when people are likely to either fold or 4bet, and depolarize when they are calling my 3bets often.

This is because if I 3bet something like TT as a "bluff" like you are doing, against player who only 4bets or folds, I put myself in a pretty shit spot. This is because if TT is not in my value range, and is just gonna fold to a 4bet, 3betting it never gets worse to call and only faces 4bets or gets folds by worse hands that we could have made a lot of money off postflop. If a player is calling 3bets a lot then we don't want to 3bet bluff much, and should 3bet a much wider value range.

what's the diff? Obviously having TT and AJ as air is better for your 3betting range, as compared to J5o.

You have not considered what this does for your calling range. If you are 3-betting AJ, then it's no longer in your calling range, which significantly hurts the strength of your calling range now. Essentially, you are wasting a good hand that's strong enough to call.

I think it all depends of your post flop skills , your 3betting range should be the top of your folding range+ obv your value range. Things that you normally fold or that you call but should normally call. As you evolve as a player your calling range should increase (as you can play more hands profitably post flops both IP and OOP) and your polarised 3betting range will move accordingly.

Correct me if I am wrong Gavin

Ok ok, Maybe here`s the part why I cant see it helping me.. I dont have mid card in my range for cold calling, bec I dont called call.. I play MSS.. Im know what polarized is I need to understand what it does for us, whats the advantage.. Im sorry if I dont understand you explanations right away Thanks for the response guys..

Originally posted by mbml
what's the diff? Obviously having TT and AJ as air is better for your 3betting range, as compared to J5o.

You have not considered what this does for your calling range. If you are 3-betting AJ, then it's no longer in your calling range, which significantly hurts the strength of your calling range now. Essentially, you are wasting a good hand that's strong enough to call.

Maybe I'm wrong, but by betting polorized/non-linear aren't we also getting a stronger calling range?

If we have hands like JJ, AJs, AQ in our linear 3b range we will now call those and 3b the bottom of our usual calling range. Or am I wrong here?