Playing Your Range 9/05/2014

In this post I’d like to discuss starting hand ranges for the loose-aggressive player. One of the things that I think appeals to some many players about playing a LAG style is the creativity it allows you to employ in your play. In the world of poker today, it’s not uncommon to see people 3-betting, 4-betting, and even 5-betting light. While the 5-bet bluff can often be incredibly exciting and sometimes lucrative, it’s imperative to know when to pick your spots.

            Let’s say you’re playing a 6-max cash game and you find yourself holding 9T suited in late position with a raise in front of you. This hand has good flopping value for many reasons. Firstly, it’s less likely to run into hands that have you dominated that will call or re-raise you. Secondly, with a hand like this you can flop a lot of good draws that will more than likely hit your opponent’s range, so you can really apply pressure with multi-way draws or make them pay to draw if you flop a hand like two pair.

            Now let’s flip the tables. What if you’re in first position (UTG) with the same hand? While this could certainly be a raising hand, it loses a lot of its value when you no longer have position on your opponent. As the saying goes, “position is power” in poker. Sure you can flop big with it, but as stated above, your opponents could really put the pressure on you with combo draws or make you pay to draw. Playing this hand from out of position (OOP) also may decrease your implied odds of getting paid off. Let’s say that you call with 9hTh and the board come JhQs5h. You’ve flopped a huge draw, but if you call all the way down with this hand you’re much more unlikely to get paid off should you make your hand. However, with a loose-aggressive approach to the game, there is always the option to represent a made hand here and take the betting lead. This is something we’ll get into in later posts.

            Taking a LAG approach to the game will open you up to more variance, as you’ll be playing more hands and your raising range may essentially turn into your 3 and 4-betting range. In the next post about playing marginal hands we’ll cover this topic more extensively. As always, comments are appreciated.