Discussion on Range

[scott8]

This might be just a ramble, but the thoughts have been forming for a while now, and I felt it was time to put some ideas down for discussion.

Often when we break down decisions during MTT play, the talk centers around image, odds, and range.

This discussion begins with thoughts when you raise and then are re-reraised (preflop) and must determine how to proceed.

When we speak of range, the normal process is to determine a range of hands for villan, a range of hands villan may put you on, then break down the numbers and make a decision based on pot odds, stack size, etc.

I don't want to be misunderstood as criticizing this approach in the sense that this is obviously a sound way to advance in tournaments against the normal player.

However, my main dilemna, or perhaps problem, is that this process can be exploited when you begin to play against better players in bigger tournaments with my thoughts centering around deep stack poker.

For example, if I know you are a good player, a thinking player, I am more likely to re-raise you with suspect cards, (as a side not I decided this post is not -EV for me b/c I will get paid off enough when I have the goods), and exploit your use of range.

I am thinking of situations in later stages of tournaments when the pressure is greater, where big confrontations tend to be avoided, and against players that could fold jacks preflop.

This might sound like a lot of ingredients to even become worthy for discussion, but generally speaking, its not that hard to find these type of players in the late stages of tournaments - i.e. players that can fold jacks preflop usually have a decent understanding of MTTs.

This is also would be a place where the squeeze play is used.

Look, I know this post might be easily dismissed, and there is a lot more I wish to say about "range", but this should be enough to at least generate some questions if nothing else.

Basically, my main point/objective is to demonstrate alternative ways to accumalate chips in tournaments, or in the alternative, why "range" can be used to get you to fold the better hand, and why Harrington for example includes the bluff factor in his analysis.

Anyway, I might not have said anything at all, but it felt good to type.

-SC