When to Adjust Your Opening Ranges
One of the most impactful things any poker player can do to instantly improve their game starts with the pre-flop betting round and knowing what hands to play and what hands to fold.
Winning players only play mathematically optimal ranges of hands.
If you want to learn what these optimal hand ranges look like, check out our preflop range charts.
The second most impactful thing to learn about is when and how to adjust these ranges for the specific situation you are in at the table.
There are MANY situations where you should not blindly follow range charts, including:
- if antes are in play
- on the bubble / ICM
- responding to various raise sizes
- big stack in position to you
- short stack in position to you
- tight players to act after you
- loose players to act after you
- blinds frequently fold to steal attempts
- in a turbo MTT structure
- PKO/bounty tournaments
So let's dive into each scenario and talk through how you should adjust your preflop ranges.
Antes Widen Ranges
In a tournament setting, there is usually an ante in play to incentivize more action.
With a bigger potential pot at stake, it becomes more lucrative to steal the pot and get involved in more hands. This becomes pivotal in the later stages of tournaments when stacks get shorter and the antes become even more valuable.
Antes should encourage you to slightly widen your range, especially in late position.
Bubble Play and ICM
It might be counterintuitive but when you're a short stack approaching the money bubble or final table bubble you generally want to play a much tighter range.
Most range charts are calculated based on chip EV (or cEV) which is the expected value in chips that a specific action should yield.
When there are real money payout implications, it is more important to consider $EV which factors in the risk of you busting the tournament against the potential of waiting for a better hand and laddering for a significantly better payout.
As a result, most bubble play results in tight ranges (unless you're the big stack but more on that later). But this is why bubbles can last a while and it's not unusual to see micro stacks folding decently strong hands in an attempt to wait for someone else to bust first.
Raise Sizes Affect Your Defending Ranges
The bigger a player raises the worse your pot odds become, so mathematically it's profitable to fold out more of your weaker hands.
On the flip side, a smaller raise gives you better pot odds which can encourage a wider calling range.
Stack Sizes in Position
If there's a big stack left to act after you you should be careful.
But if there's a short stack after you, you should be even more careful!
Short stacks tend to play more push/fold and as a result will go all-in on you, putting you in a tough spot.
The best way to mitigate this is by playing a tighter range in this situation so that you don't have to fold to their shove as often. This also allows you to more comfortably call since your tighter range consists of stronger hands.
Player Tendencies
You should pay attention to how the players after you tend to act.
Then you can adjust your ranges to exploit these tendencies.
If a tight player never calls your raises or folds most of their hands in the blinds, that should encourage you to widen your range and make more of these plays against them. They will fold and you will be able to pick up the blinds and antes more often.
The opposite applies too, if a loose player calls or raises you more than they should, you can tighten your range and only get involved with hands that have an edge over their wide range.
Tournament Structures
Certain tournaments encourage specific play more than others.
Take for example a bounty tournament where part of the payouts come from eliminating other players.
Players will want your bounty. This incentivizes more action, especially when you're on a shorter stack.
As a result, they are supposed to fold less frequently and so you should tighten your range and only get involved when you have an advantage.
Closing Thoughts
Learning what ranges to play preflop will immediately increase your win rate and lead you to win more often at showdown.
But if you want to take it to the next level, learn when and how to adjust these opening ranges to maximize your win rate even further!