[binkley]

At a full nine-handed cash table 100BB deep, I’m opening about 10% of hands UTG. This range widens slightly through the next two positions. Starting at the LJ is widens more and more. LJ ~17%, HL ~20%, CO~27%, BN~40%.

Generally cash ranges are tighter because 1) there is a rake 2) no antes and 3) shorter stacks.

At deeper stacks (100BB or greater), good suited hands (Axs, Kxs) and suited connectors have greater value (98s, 76s).

At stacks get shorter, opening ranges get wider in general. As you get really shallow (<25BB), position becomes less of factor as you can get all-in before the river. This allows you to open more from early position. Big cards become more important and suited connectors become devalued.

Opening ranges need to be adjusted depending on the table dynamics and the players. Aggressive 3bettors…tighten up. Tight players in the blinds…loose up in late position.

[jim]

I think 10% of hands UTG is a great place to be – even in loose fields it’s just plain HARD to make worse hands profitable in the long run from UTG. Over the years, my ego caused me to routinely open wider than I should have from UTG but I am combating that in my wise old age by re-examining my preflop ranges and trying to devise new ranges that are profitable VS MY PLAYER POOLS and not vs some optimally-programmed super-computer that I will never play against anyway. The ranges I built a decade ago are simply too clever by half and I am leaving money on the table by preemptively counter-exploiting strategies that my foes are honestly not even employing. The only person I’m outsmarting is myself! So I’m looking forward to revisiting my “spots and candidates” approach to continuing-range building sometime soon, but it all starts with RFI! @Binkley when it folds around to your SB, do you have a mixed opening limp/raise strategy or always one or the other (unless folding obv)?

[binkley]

My SB play is a work in progress. When I played the cash game in my local card room, it was typical to chop with the BB if it folded around. On very rare occasion, you had a player that didn’t want to chop. But most player see the wisdom of saving the rake and chopping. So now that I’m playing more tournaments and online, I’m still trying to figure out the SB vs BB strategy.

I’m using a mixed strategy of limps and raises. I’ll adjust the mix based on my read of BB. If BB seems straightforward and/or passive, I’ll use more raises. If BB seems aggressive and capable of making plays, I’ll use more limps.

[steve-fredlund]

A year or so ago I went through building my ranges but I want to totally re-do it, thinking through all I have learned over the past year or so. I’m hoping in the next month or so to have some time free up to spend on this (maybe with a few trusted advisors!)

[fivebyfive]

<div>I have some standard ranges that I apply, but I too am wanting to do an overhaul and rework. Some of the factors that help me determine when to adjust them though are:
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• Overall aggression/3 betting at the table
• My potential skill edge or skill deficit post flop, especially considering the player on the button and big blind
• Stack sizes
• General flow of the game (have I been tight, aggro of late?)

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With cash games, I play a little more static/true to a deep stack strategy whereas tournaments (when equally deep stacked), I may mix it up a bit more based on the factors above.

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[jim]

maybe we could make a group or something for people who are trying to build or refine prelop ranges? I think if we tried to work together on it starting in September or something we could really improve our results by sharing our work with each other. Maybe even a Zoom call every two weeks for the people that were interested? I think it could take awhile to explore it properly, and as rec players we all have jobs etc and only so many hours to spend in the lab each week. But when I did it last time it was very manageable in bite-sized chunks, and I think doing it collectively online would mean that we could leave our work in place and come back to it when we had time, and see what others had thought about it. Hey @SteveFredlund @FiveByFive maybe this could be a “project” or a “course” that RecPoker offered, kind of building from the seminar primers and expanding on them in a topic-focused recurring study group, and we could make the videos and study materials available to members later in the archives? Kind of like the Book Study but for topics instead of books.

[steve-fredlund]

I would love this. I would love to be the guinea pig for this to have everyone help me build my ranges based on my personality and game type. Can’t imagine how fun that would be.

[richdietz-mrdzzz18]

Love this idea, and I would just be happy to be on the zoom to hear how you guys are thinking through the actual building of the ranges. Seems a bit above my thinking level now but I think just hearing the discussion would really improve my understanding.