A key component to becoming a competent poker player is having a balanced range. A balanced range is where you can play a wide range of hands in the same manner. Throughout this article we will take a look at balanced versus unbalanced ranges, why balance your range when betting on poker games online, examples, and key points.
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Balanced Vs Unbalanced range
As mentioned, a balanced hand range means you will play many different hands in the same way. Opposite to this is an unbalanced range, where you play the same hands in the same way. For example, if you only cBet flops that have improved your hand such as make a pair or draw then your range will be unbalanced. If you cBet flops that have improved your hand and also flops that you have missed, then this will be a balanced range.
Why balance your range?
Balancing your range will mean that opponents are less likely to pick up a read on your hand strength due to the fact that you could have such a wide range of hands (often air or made hands). Doing so will put your opponents into tough situations when it comes to their hand reading versus your betting patterns. If you were to have a perfectly balanced range then players will then have to make guess decisions as to what hand you are holding. This means that the majority of the time they make mistakes versus you that you can then go on to exploit.
It’s important to remember that it is not always necessary to balance your range. When playing poor players who are not really taking any notice of your playing style or range of hands and merely playing their own cards to the board, then this would mean we do not need to develop a balanced range versus this player as they are not taking any notice anyway.
Players we want to be creating a balanced range versus are quality players or regulars in the game. It’s likely that over time you will have created an image (and vice-versa) at the table so a balanced range is much more important to conceal your hand strength.
Example of a balanced range
- Our hand: 7 hearts, 6 diamonds
- Board: A diamonds, 8 spades, 9 spades
In this situation we have flopped an open ended straight draw and we decide that the best play versus our competent opponent is to check raise the flop. Our opponent decides to go all in and we call off the bet with our draw.
There are two key points to note here: 1) Our opponent has seen that we are check raising our draws on the flop and 2) knows that we are going to stack off with our draws.
A similar situation occurs a few hands later. Except this time, on the same board, our holding cards are 8 hearts, 8 diamonds, giving us a set. Again we elect to check raises versus the same opponent and again our opponent goes all in for us once again to call it off.
So we have check raised both our draws and our high value made hands in two very similar situations, meaning we have balanced our range against this opponent. The next time we do so, they will have to make a decision giving us a wide range of hands that we make this play with.
Key Points
You don’t need to balance your range against every opponent. Look at the better players and regulars in the game rather than the fish as they are generally going to be taking less notice which makes balancing almost useless.
Timing is key when balancing your range. You need to find yourself in situations where balancing is going to be good. Don’t go searching for them, they will come, but it’s up to you to recognise when.
Use your notes section on your poker client to make notes on how you have played a certain hand versus an opponent. This can be a great way to remember certain hands you may of played and balance your range accordingly.
