Exploits (4): Keeping ranges wide

Keeping ranges wide is an exploit with which you make a made hand look weak by checking or calling. As a result, weak hands remain in the calling and betting ranges of your opponent on the later streets. Thus, you keep his range wide. If the profit against these weaker hands is greater than the EV that you could have reached with a direct bet (or a raise) then you should strongly consider keeping your opponent's range wide in this way.

In this lesson you will get to know the two most frequent applications of this exploit:

• You check the flop in order to keep your opponent's bluffing and calling ranges wide.
• You bet/call with a strong hand instead of raising in order to keep your opponent's betting ranges wide.
  

You check the flop and keep your opponent's calling and betting ranges wide.

Here, you check on the flop in order to win more money from weaker hands on the turn and river. This can happen in two ways:

1. Your opponent hits a weaker pair on the turn that you can value bet against.
2. Your opponent bluffs with hands that he would have folded with against a bet on the flop.

You thereby increase your opponent's total range: his calling range through the possibility of him hitting a second best hand, and his bluffing range through your perceived weakness.

Choose non-vulnerable hands

You should only choose hands for this exploit that can't easily be hurt by further turn cards, i.e. your opponent only has 0 to 4 outs with most of his weak hands. For example you could check on. On this board, apart from an Ace, there are no turn cards that can hurt your hand because most of the hands in your opponent's range have barely any equity against your hand.

The more equity the hands in your opponent's range have against you, the more you should bet yourself rather than check.

A board you should bet on would be with a hand like : every spade, every 3, every 2, every 7 and every 8 will devalue your hand.

Example for keeping your calling range wide

NL25 (6max)
100BB Stacks

Preflop: Hero is Button with
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.10) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

You are playing against a LAG who, on average, will call with this range from the BB:

Against a flop bet he would keep playing with this following range:

Against this range on the flop you have 58% equity and can therefore profitably value bet. However, on the turn you can't continue value betting because some hands in your opponent's range will fold against a turn bet.

If you check on the flop instead, one of the following cases can occur:

1. Your opponent hits a weaker pair, with a 4,5,6,7,8,9,T or a jack, that you can value bet against.
2. Your opponent bluffs with air that he would have folded to a flop bet.

Since the equity of most hands in your opponent's range is low, your opponent will seldom hit a stronger hand than you on the turn. A lot more often it will be the case that your opponent bluffs the turn or hits a weak pair that you can value bet against, as in the following situation:

Turn: ($1.10) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.80, BB calls $0.80

Your opponent will most often bet Qx or better and some air hands himself. Therefore his range after a check looks as follows:

Since he calls the hands marked yellow against a bet, you can value bet the turn and river.

River: ($2.70) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2.00, BB calls $2.00
Villain shows:  

Keeping the bet range wide by calling instead of raising

You keep your opponent's betting range wide by bet/calling instead of reraising. Therefore, you exploit your opponent's tendency to bet more hands on the following streets than he would have kept playing with against a reraise.

You lose value against the hands in your opponent's range that would have gone all-in against a reraise, but still check/fold on unfavourable turn or river cards. However, you win considerably more against the bluffs and weak draws in your opponent's range that bet themselves and would have folded to a raise.

Keeping range wide: The requirement for this application is that your opponent will bet a wider range on future streets than he would have kept playing with against a raise. He therefore has more draws in his range.

Example for keeping the betting range wide.

NL25 (6max)
100BB Stacks

Hero holds
3 folds, Hero open raises on the button to $0.50, the big blind calls.

Flop: ($1.10) (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB raises to $2.5, Hero call or 3-Bet?

The average calling range of a LAG on the BU looks as follow:

In this specific case you could widen your opponent's range in the big blind. The reasons for this are as follows:

• Your opponent calls more against a min raise than against a 3x open raise.
• Your opponent calls more against an open raise from the BU.
• You have already seen your opponent call J7s in this situation.

In total you give him the following range pre flop:

You know that your opponent check-raises a lot of flops, even with marginal hands, since he gives himself a lot of fold equity against you. You open raised from the button and therefore have a wide range.

You can divide this range into different categories:

Now you need to estimate the EV of a 3bet in comparison to the EV of a call against the separate partial ranges.

Made hands: Here, the EV with a call is slightly worse than with a 3-bet. On certain (especially unfavourable) board runouts, your opponent might still fold a hand like AT. However, this doesn't happen too often and therefore the EV against the made hands in your opponent's range is only slightly worse.

Strong draws: In this case you lose EV. It is quite possible that your opponent will bet the turn after you call but check/fold the river with a strong draw. Your EV would be higher with a 3-bet on the flop and a following all-in. Strong draws however only make up 36 combinations and are therefore less than the weak draws in your opponent's range.

Weak draws: Here, you make considerably more with a call compared to a 3-bet. Your opponent can still invest money on later streets, or his draw could improve to the second best hand.

Since your opponent has more weaker draws than strong ones in his range, you should just call on the flop and keep your opponent's range wide.

Summary

Keeping the range wide is an exploit in which you make your hand look weak, by checking or calling, in order to widen your opponent's calling and betting range.

With the most important application of it, you just check the flop with a hand of middling strength. This way you keep your opponent's bluffing and calling range on the turn and river wide. Note here that most hands in your opponent's range have between 0 and 4 outs against you.

The second important application is when you keep your opponent's betting range wide by just playing bet/call instead of reraising. You win more money with a call than with a reraise when your opponent's range includes more weaker than stronger draws.