The REM Process, Part Two: Range

While all three parts of using the REM process are important, possibly the most important is the first and that is to put your opponent on a range of hands. Many players, especially novice players, believe that they should be putting their opponent on two specific cards out of the over 1,300 combinations of hands. Now, if you can do that it's all well and good, but many get caught up in this line of thinking, get set on the idea that they have a dead read on an opponent's hand, and lose money because of it. Therefore, it is much more valuable to be able to put your opponent on a range of possible holdings and gather information as the hand progresses. A lot of times it's much easier, with the information at hand, to eliminate possible hands from your opponent's range than it is to narrow that range down or define it. Let's look at an example:

If a tight player raises from first position, you can take hands like Q♦4♦ and hands like it out of their range. In fact they’re not going to play basically any trashy hands in first position. So how can we narrow down this person’s range? We look for their tendencies. We look for physical tells, what we’ve seen them show down with in the past, and betting patterns and sizes. One thing that many players are not aware of is that they will reveal the strength of their hand by the amount that they raise before the flop. Say for example that a weak-tight player is raising three times the amount of the big blind with hands like KQ, KJ, AJ, AT, but they’re coming in for five times the size of the big blind with hands like AA, KK, or QQ. This person essentially just told you what they had, so you can make the best decision based on those types of patterns. One of the keys to playing a loose-aggressive style is that you should keep your raise sizes the same amount no matter what two cards you hold. If you’re going to raise with AA, you should raise it the same way you would with something like 8♣9♣. By doing this you are able to make it much more difficult for your opponents to put you on a specific range of hands from the very beginning.

One thing that you should be doing is reassessing your opponent’s range with each card that is dealt. What if your opponent likes to slowplay big hands such as flopped sets or top two pair? Let’s say a tight player has raised from first position. We can likely put his range around AA, KK, QQ, AK, or maybe even JJ or TT. Then the flop comes K♥7♦3♣. Your opponent checks, and you check. Now we’re thinking that we can eliminate KK or AK from his range. We see a turn card of J♠ and we put in a bet and without hardly thinking, our opponent puts in a raise. As stated before it’s unlikely that our opponent would raise with something like KJ, so now we can pretty easily put our opponent on either KK or AK. If our opponent likes to slowplay, it’s more than likely KK, which is the best possible hand right now. Your evaluations will change with each new card and action and will give you more information and allow you to narrow down your opponent’s range.

In the next section we will take a look at the second part of the REM process: equity and how you can make the best decisions possible after you have put your opponent on a range of hands.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.