The Problems with a Polarized Range by Matthew Janda

http://www.cardrunners.com/article/110/the-problems-with-a-polarized-range/

The Problems with a Polarized Range

                A player polarizes his range when he raises all his very strong hands and some bluffs, and calls with all his medium strength hands. While the former range is very easy to play, the latter is extremely difficult to play against competent opponents who know their opponent has no strong hands in his range. Since good players will attempt to exploit their opponents using polarized ranges by over-betting to maximize their bluff frequency, you should attempt to avoid polarizing your ranges against opponents good enough to punish you for having no very strong hands in their range. 

                In order to best illustrate this concept, it’s best to start off with an extreme example of the difficulties you’ll face when you only have medium strength hands in your range. Suppose you are playing 6-max with 100 big blind stacks and under the gun opens for 3.5 big blinds and you are the only caller from the button. Your preflop range is JJ-22, KQs, JQs, JTs, T9s, 98s, AQ, AJs, and ATs, which you believe to be very close to a theoretically optimal flatting range and your opponent knows this. Suppose the flop comes 2h 2s 2d.

                Unfortunately, through no fault of your own, you received the worst possible flop for your range and your range contains no very strong hands. Raising this flop would make little sense, since your opponent knows he cannot be beat when he has JJ-AA, and has 28% equity against the top hand in your range with AK, AQ, and KQ. Instead you are forced to call or fold on the flop, and will frequently face turn and river bets and will often end up folding the best hand. Suppose you decide to flat JJ-77, AQ, and KQs. Once again, this is the same situation one finds himself in when he polarizes his range by only calling with medium strength hands.

                Your opponent will want to maximize his bluff frequency, and in order to do this he will bet equal fractions of the pot on all three streets. The pot will be 8.5bb on the flop, and in order to make the pot 201.5bb on the river your opponent must make the pot grow at the rate of “r” each street, where 8.5r³ = 201.5bb. Since r = 2.87, your opponent will want to be around 93% of the pot on each street (since his 93% pot sized bet and your call will make the pot grow at the desired rate). Since your opponent cannot recklessly fire all three streets, your opponent will have to give up bluffing some air hands on the turn and some air hands on the river. Let’s take a look at what frequency your opponent can be bluffing on every street before you can start calling with your medium strength hands profitably.   

Your opponent will want to make you indifferent to calling on the river, so 67.5% of his 93% pot sized bets on the river must be for value. An easy was to visualize why your opponent needs to be betting for value 67.5% of the time on the river when he makes a 93% pot sized bet is to imagine the pot is $100 on the river and your opponent makes a $93 bet. When you call your opponents bet and win, you’ll win both the original pot and his river bet for $193. When you call and lose, you’ll lose only $93 (the money you already lost in the pot is dead money). If you win $193 only 32.5% of the time and lose $93 the remaining 67.5% of the time when you call with your medium pocket pairs, you will be indifferent to calling  and folding since ($193 x 32.5%) - ($93 x 67.5%)  = 0.  Since calling is effectively the same thing as folding on the river and have an expected value of 0, in order to not be getting odds to call the turn your opponent must follow through on the river 67.5% of the time (because every time you face a river bet, calling and folding will both have an expected value of 0). The same logic applies on the flop, so in order to make you indifferent to calling the flop with JJ your opponent must follow through on the turn 67.5% of the time. In other words,

1)      On the river, 67.5% of your opponent’s bets must be for value.

2)      On the turn, 45.5% (0.675 x 0.675) of your opponent’s turn betting range must be able to value bet the river.

3)      On the flop, 30.7% of your opponent’s flop betting range (0.675 x 0.675 x 0.675) must be able to value bet the river.

Note how on each street our opponents range consists of more and more value hands and less bluffs, so the more betting rounds which remain the more your opponent can bluff. You can see how problematic this is to play against. While you will surely hit a six outer with AQ or spike a two outer with a pocket pair on some turns or rivers, your opponent will often do the same to you (especially since most of his bluffs have such high equity). It’s not particularly difficult for him to be able to value bet the river with 30.7% of the hands he continuation bets on the flop. Many players at NL$200 and lower think “Well, pocket fives have over 50% equity against an UTG’s continuation bet range on a 222 or 664 flop, and since I’m getting better than 2:1 this is an easy call.” Yet this is not the case. Even if your hand has a lot of equity against your opponents continuation betting range on the flop, too often you’ll be forced to fold it on the turn or river,  or end up making an unprofitable river call. There are some flops from certain positions you just cannot prevent your opponent from firing 100% of his range on. If you are lucky enough to hold 66 or TT on a 6c 6h Td flop in the small blind against a cutoff open, you need to check-call those hands to defend against your opponent who knows your range is weak and will likely be double and triple barreling many turns and rivers.

Now instead imagine another situation where the cutoff opens and you are the only caller from the button. The flop comes Qh 7s 2c, and once against your opponent continuation bets. Since this flop connects with your range around as well as his, your opponent will probably bet less than 90% of the pot and won’t be able to get it in by the river unless he overbets the turn or river.  In order to avoid the situation you were faced with in the previous example, you should refrain from polarizing your range and instead flat most of your sets on the flop. While AQ and KQ might be good hands to raise (along with some air) on the flop, it’s more useful to flat with your sets and raise them on the turn. This prevents your range from consisting only of hands QJ and worse and polarizing your range. In addition, sets don’t need fear falling behind when an overcard falls or your opponent drills two pair.

                Nevertheless, there are still situations when polarizing ones range is correct.  Two of the most common ones are when...

1)      Your opponent isn’t good enough to realize your range is polarized, or won’t punish you if he does.

2)      You are in position and the board has a lot of draws, so the vast majority of turns will put some nut type hands in your range as soon as the turn card hits.

For example, suppose the cutoff opens and you are the only caller from the button. The flop comes Ts 9s 5h, and the cutoff makes his standard sized continuation bet. Polarizing your range by raising all your two pairs, sets, monster draws, and air is perfectly acceptable in this case, because just about every turn card will put some nut type hands in your range. Any spade gives you a possible flush, any ten or nine brings possible trips, and any ace, king, queen, jack, or eight gives possible two pairs or straights. So 32 of the possible 49 cards which can turn, or about 2/3 the deck, will put nut type hands in your range and protect you from an opponent who wants to exploit polarized ranges by over-betting. Likewise, slow playing a set or two pair will often result in you either losing action or getting drawn out on many of the previously mentioned turn cards, making slow playing usually a bad idea.

                Recognizing when your opponents range is polarized provides a great way to increase your win rate.  If you do open from middle position and get a caller from the SB, don’t be afraid to bet large amounts on a very dry 955 flop (whether it’s rainbow or there are two of one suite), especially when your stack is a bit over 100 big blinds. You know your opponent can’t be strong unless he has 99 or 55, which only make up 4 hand combinations. Likewise, don’t be afraid to punish opponents when you know they can’t be strong after they check-call on a draw heavy board. if you know your opponent would never call with a hand better than KQ on a Qc Ts 6c 2s board on the turn (since he would likely check-raise AQ or better on the flop and the 2 on the turn doesn’t ever improve him), don’t be afraid to over-bet jam the river against an opponent as a bluff when the river comes a 3d. While you and your opponents will undoubtedly not play perfectly, realizing the theoretical problems polarized ranges have when facing over-bets will both allow you to better exploit your weaker opponents, and slowly gear your play style towards a more theoretically optimal style to use against opponents equally capable of exploiting you.

                Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables.

By Matthew Janda

The Thin Red Line Episode 1

What is the red line?

Imagine playing against two robots. One is programmed to never fold and the other to only call with AA. When playing against the one that never folds, your red line will never be positive and will be at best, breakeven, but your blue line will be positive because you can value bet them relentlessly. When playing against the robot who only calls with AA, your red line should be positive and your blue line will vary depending on how you play. At micro stakes, most players play similar to the robot that never folds so you should be value betting a lot and will probably have a high blue line and a varying red line. Small stakes will have more solid regulars who will often show down with solid hands and the way to beat these guys is not in value betting but in making good bluffs which increase your red line. Although the regulars are more solid, they are mostly weak tight meaning they will not call down light but will fold to aggression.

How does the red line work?

• Bluffing
• Value betting (the thinner you are capable of value betting, the more your red line will increase. If you are capable of value betting thin, you will increase your blue line when you get called and have the best of it and also increase your red line when your opponent folds.)
• Bluff catching (if you are good at bluff catching, it will be good for your red line. When you fold on the river, your red line will decrease and your blue line will remain stationary. If you are the type who makes a lot of call downs, good or bad, it will keep your red line stationary and increase or decrease your blue line.)

The “standard” game

• Your standard game is what you default to against unknowns. Your play against them based on assumptions of the average player.
• Once you gain more information, you deviate from your standard game and build a game plan around the new information. Problem with most players is that they are either incapable or choose not to adjust their game.
• Players that do not or are incapable of adjusting will allow you to get away with a lot of stuff against them.

Pre-flop deviation: Opening

• “Strong” hands vs. “Pretty” hands (strong = big pairs, broadways, pretty = SCs)
• What are the player types at your table? (when deciding whether to play strong or pretty hands, you should check the players left to act and their tendencies. Against call happy opponents, you want to be opening more strong hands that you can value bet with, hands like K9, A8, QT. Against weak tight players, you can play hands like 75s and 97s because you can semi-bluff them and keep the pressure on.)
• What are their positions and stack sizes?
• Who is the most likely player to give you action? (identify your target so that you can adjust your range according to their tendencies and know what to expect against them.)
• What is your image?
• Stealing with ATC (if you are opening 3x in the SB against the BB, the BB has to be playing 40% of his hands or you show an instant profit.)

Pre-flop deviation: Calling and 3-Betting

• Polarized vs. depolarized 3-betting (as a general rule, we should 3-bet a depolarized range from the blinds because people tend to call more IP and a polarized range IP because people tend to fold more.)
• Your reads and edge determine the range of hands you can play profitably.
• Your opponents' fold to 3-bet and 4-bet tendencies determine your 3-bet frequency and range.
• For 100bbs, “strong” hands play better in 3-bet pots than “pretty” hands.

Post-flop deviation:

• DON’T just make the standard 2+2 ABC play.
• Think of how your opponent plays.
• Come up with a strategy to exploit.
• Do it! (if you come up with a line that you think is most +EV, just do it. Do not worry about what others will think and what the “standard line” is.)

Post-flop deviation: Strategy

• Two big concepts that will help you better understand how to exploit your opponent is Honesty and Dishonesty. A “honest” action is one that represents their hand. A “dishonest” action is one where a player gets tricky to misrepresent their hand. HUDs are a good way to spot honest and dishonest players which will allow you to exploit them.
• Example of a honest play is when a player opens and you call IP. He c-bets the flop and you call. The turn is a scare card and he c/f. This is a sign of an honest player because the scare card is a good card for him to bluff but he folds instead. 
• GC uses the c-bet and fold to c-bet stats a lot. They are good determining level of honesty and point of honesty.
• FvCB: You flop a hand about 1/3 times so if you call only when you hit, you would call a bet 33% and fold 66%. Anyone who folds 60%+ is honest because they call only when they hit their hand or have a draw. We can c-bet against this type of player with a very high frequency, sometimes as high as 100%.
• FvTB:  On the turn, if someone with about 60%+ FvCB calls on the flop, it probably isn’t a good idea to bluff them. We should only continue if we have a hand we want to bet for value/protection or if a really good scare card falls.
• TCB: Many people tend to have a very high/dishonest flop c-bet but honest turn c-bet. Dishonest flop players will often slow down on the turn unless they improved or had a strong hand to begin with which is 35-40% of the time. Although 35-40% TCB is fairly honest, people can still mix up their play so the stat is not completely reliable. This leads us to take a look at their turn c/r.
• Turn c/r: If a player has a low turn c/r and turn c-bet then that is a sign that he is honest. He will be c/f’ing the turn a lot and we can take advantage of that. We can float his c-bets then take it away on the turn when he checks. Note that if the villain bets, our FvTB should be very high. Evaluate according to board texture and hand strength but second pair type hands will usually be no good. This will also allow you to open up your game against this player pre-flop as well. If you find someone who has an exploitable tendency, it makes sense to open up pre-flop against them by calling IP and trying to take it away from them post.
• As the PFR vs dishonest player (someone with a low FvCB and high Bet IP vs Missed CB likes to float a lot):
• FvCB: Against a dishonest player who folds very little to c-bets, we can bet a wider range for value. Their flop calling range can be wide for various reasons but a lot of it will be very weak hands that will either fold to a second barrel or try to take the pot away from you later.
• Bet IP vs Missed CB: A player with low fold to c-bet and high Bet IP vs Missed CB is someone who floats a lot. They plan on calling the flop and taking it away on the turn. The worst thing you can do against this type of player is c-bet the flop and c/f the turn because that is exactly what they want. Instead of taking that line, you want to either double barrel, c/c or c/r the turn. In order to accomplish this, you will have to adjust your flop c-betting range and frequency. 
• Example1: You are OOP with 44 on KT2r. Should you c-bet this flop? Most players would say yes because this is a good flop for our perceived range, but the answer is no because it would be incorrect against this opponent. He will be floating a wide range on the flop and we will be forced to c/f the turn because our hand has very little equity against his range. Folding instead of c-betting the flop is a non-standard play, but correct against this specific opponent. 
• Example 2: You are OOP with JT on KT2r. Should you c-bet this flop? The answer is yes because he will be floating you with a lot of worse hands. On the turn, we can take the c/c line because he has a high Bet IP vs Missed CB, we are basically checking to induce. The river play becomes much more tricky if he bets but the flop and the turn plays are very clear. This same line should be taken with hands like AK. Most people would double barrel the turn thinking that he can call with worse but the truth is this guy’s turn range has a lot of air and cannot stand a double barrel. So instead of double barreling, we stand to make more money by checking to him. He will bet all his worse hands as a bluff and if he has a K, he will bet it for value for us. Another line is to c/r the turn and the question we have to ask is which one will make us more money, c/c or c/r? If we c/r, our opponent can only continue with a very strong hand, hands like Kx or better. We will fold out all his air and get another bet from him on the river. But by the same token, if we c/c the turn, any hand that would have called our c/r on the turn would most likely bet the river anyways. By c/ring the turn, we get slightly more money in when he has a stronger hand but we maximize against his whole range (which is very wide) if we c/c the turn and c/c the river. Again this is a non standard play. Very few people would bet the flop and c/c the turn and river with AK but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense against this type of opponent. 
• Example 3: You are OOP with QJ on KT2r. This is going to be a standard c-bet because your hand has good equity and some fold equity and it leaves your options open on the turn because you maintain initiative. On the turn, you can either double barrel or c/r. Both are good options but it will be somewhat opponent specific. If your opponent is going to call you down light whether you c/r or double barrel, it would be cheaper to double barrel. If your opponent is capable of folding some marginal showdown hands to a c/r then a c/r is more profitable because you will get a bet out of his bluffs and fold out some marginal hands you are behind. 
• Example 4: you are OOP with TT on KT2r. This hand should be played in the same way as AK following the same logic. Maximize value against his whole range. The only slight difference is that instead of c/cing the river, we can c/rai.
• As Defender vs dishonest PFR:
• What should our strategy be against someone who c-bets 80% on the flop, 60% on the turn and 60% on the river? This person c-bets too much on every street meaning he will have a very weak range overall. First of all we should do the opposite of what our opponent wants us to do, which is fold. His high c-bet percentage across all streets means he wants us to fold the turn or the river so we should never fold after we call the flop. Our flop range needs to be stronger against this villain so that we don’t have to fold the turn. We should never float him and should fold marginal hands that cannot stand a second barrel. 
• Example is 77 on T82 board, we have to fold because the turn becomes very difficult to play. Because our flop range is going to be much stronger, our opponent’s high double barrel percentage is going to be used against him as we will be taking a c/c or c/r line a lot. 
• Another counter strategy against this opponent is to never value raise the flop because we stand to make more calling him down. This can also be extended to our pre-flop play where we attempt to trap him by flatting hands like AA and KK so that we can let him incorrectly attempt to barrel us. Trapping with big hands pre-flop is going to depend on how often our opponent is folding to 3-bet and folding post-flop of course. If he doesn’t fold then you can just 3-bet and abuse him. Now if you have a draw against this guy, it is better to call his c-bet on the flop and raise the turn. As a standard, you would raise the flop against most people with draws but against this guy, his turn range is so weak that a raise will take it down a lot and we win more money when he double barrel and folds. We also look stronger on the turn when we raise as most people raise the flop instead.
• Vs. TAG opponent missing a standard flop c-bet: 
• For example, you are in the BB and call a TAG’s PFR. The flop comes KT2r, you check and he checks behind. This tells you a lot about your opponent’s hand strength. He is c-betting all his TP+ hands and air so when he checks, it is often going to be medium strength hands that are checking to induce and bluff catch (if you see someone take this line with a hand you did not expect, take a note as it will be invaluable to you in the future). When he checks the flop, he is almost never going to fold the turn, so if you plan on betting the turn, make sure you follow through on the river as well otherwise don’t bet at all. The worse line to take is bet the turn and check  river because that is exactly what he wants you to do. Now if you have a TP+ or a strong second pair that you planned on c/c'ing the flop with, you should bet the turn big for value. Your opponent is almost never folding to any size bet so you want to maximize value against them by betting pot or close to pot. This will allow you to maximize value if they call turn and fold river since your turn bet made you the most possible and it also allows you to get more value on the river since your big turn bet sets you up for a bigger river bet. The river bet sizing becomes somewhat of a leveling war because against bad straightforward players, they will call a half pot river bet but not a full pot because it looks scarier, but the truth is, the half pot bet is much more likely to be a value bet than a full pot. You can out level some people by betting half pot with bluffs because it looks like value and full pot for value. 
• Playing second pair/marginal hands against decent to good players: 
• When we have a second pair type hand like AT on KT2r we should check behind on the flop because we don’t believe we can get value. Now when we check the flop, our hand is turned face up and our opponent knows that we have a second pair type hand. He will end up betting the turn with all hands that beat us for value and with some bluffs, but when he checks the turn again, it will almost always be a c/f because he can’t beat second pair type hands. So the question is what can we do to balance our range since our strategy is exploitable. There are two solutions to this, first is to start c-betting second pair type hands. The second one is probably a bit better and that is to check back air as well. By checking back air, we can now make delayed c-bets that will have a very high fold equity on the turn. His double check is indicative of a hand that is c/f'ing. 
• For example, you have 87 on KT2r and you check behind on the flop. On the turn if our opponent checks again, he is telling us that he has a hand that cannot beat second pair and will most likely c/f. We can now very profitably make a delayed c-bet with a high success rate. Now if our opponent bets, he is telling us that he has a hand that can most likely beat second pair and we can comfortably fold. This will strengthen our flop c-bet range and balance our turn range while making our c-bets and delayed c-bets more successful and profitable. As a result, our red line will most likely increase. Remember that this is against a decent to good player, fishes and donks will have a different thought process, try to figure out what it is. 
• Another example of a good flop check is when we have KJ OOP and we 3-bet pre-flop and get called. The flop comes A82 and we have to decide whether to c-bet or check. On this board texture, people expect you to c-bet your air and TP+ hands 100% and when you check, your hand looks like a medium strength hand like KK or QQ that is going for a c/c line. By checking the flop, you can expect your opponents to rarely bluff you because they think your hand is face up. If they do bet when checked to, they most likely have the A or better and are betting for value. You end up saving yourself a c-bet a lot of the them and will also have a very high success rate with your delayed c-bet on the turn when they check behind on the flop. They are basically giving up after they check the flop.
• FvCB and DB relation: Let’s say someone donk bets 100% of the time when they hit something on the flop then that means when he checks, he has pure air. So if his DBs are honest, then his fold to c-bet stat should be very high (we can only c-bet if he checks to us so DB are not counted in the stat). If you ever play against someone who has high DB stat like 30-40% and a low FvCB then his DB is mostly bluffs because he can’t have a c/c range if he DBs all his made hands. The higher their FvCB stat is, the more credit you can give DBs and the lower it is, the less credit. 
• FvCB, Raise CB and FvTB: Someone with a low FvCB and a high Raise CB is going to be dishonest because you only hit a hand 1/3 times. Now if their FvTB is also low then you have a player who is very dishonest especially when he raises your CB. The reason is because the villain cannot have a low FvTB unless his flop calling range is strong and his flop calling range cannot be strong if he Raises CB so much. Now obviously if the player has a high FvTB, you need to give them more credit when they raise your c-bets. Now lets use some numbers to solidify this analysis. If your opponent has a FvCB of 40%, Raise CB of 20% and a low FvTB of say 40% then his flop Raise CB is going to be a lot of air. You hit a hand 1/3 times  or about 30-35%. If he raises with made hands only, then there is only about 15% made hands left in his range. If he only folds to c-bets 40% then he is playing 60% of his range on the flop with 40% of his range left after you subtract his Raise CB of 20%. Well only 15% of the hands left can be a made hand meaning 15%/40% or 3/8 of his range on the turn is a made hand and the other 5/8 is air which he will have to fold on the turn. Now our stat is that he folds only 40% of the turn meaning his calling range on the flop should have a lot more made hands. This implies that his raising range is weak. The only way his FvTB can be low while his Raise CB % is high with strong hands is if he is someone who double floats. Then you are going to have to look at his FvRB stat. (realize that no one is playing 100% of their made hands on the flop so realistically, the numbers are going to be much smaller.)
• A more simple analogy to help understand the relationships above is if a guy is flatting all his premiums pre-flop (slowplaying) and is 3-betting you 3% of the time, his 3-bets are air even if his 3bet stat is low. There are only so many premiums and if he flats them, he already used them up so his 3-bets have to be air.
• WWSF: A dishonest player will have a higher WWSF because he likes to fight for the pot. A honest player will have a WWSF of about 35%. Grindcore has a WWSF of about 50%. If a player with 35% WWSF is betting into you, you should be folding even with your bluff catchers and versus someone with 50%+, you should call down lighter.
• Be careful about sample size as someone with a high WWSF can be just catching cards.
• WTSD: players who have a high WTSD tend to bluff catch more.
• W$SD: someone with a high WTSD and a high W$SD is someone who doesn’t value bet much and likes to trap or slowplay.
• River AQ: players with 20% AQ almost never bluff, 30% bluff a lot and 25% is right in between.
• A player with very dishonest stats such as low FvCB, low FvTB, high WTSD, low W$SD and high WWSF and is down money is most likely going to be a very dishonest player.
• A player with high WTSD, WWSF and W$SD is someone who doesn’t really value bet and is probably winning a lot of pots through aggression and bluffs.
• Also look for players who have a low FvCB and a high Bet River OOP vs Missed CB. These type of players will be floating a lot and trying to take it away on the river. You can check the turn instead of double barreling to get more value from them.
• At the end of the day, it is not about your red or blue line but your green line. Try to make the most +EV play and things will work out.

Full Ring Theory and Practice, Part 2

Theory:

• What makes betting, raising, calling and checking profitable?
• Playing a hand against a range versus playing a range against a range.

Betting/Raising

• There are three reasons to bet or raise:
• For value
• As a bluff
• To pick up dead money against hands with non-trivial equity
• Whenever we are debating the merits of a bet or raise, we must consider our opponent's continuance range relative to his entire range. We can often manipulate our opponent's continuance range through bet sizing.
• We want to use the information available to us at any given time to make the most profitable decision possible - not bet in order to obtain additional information.

Calling

• There are four main reasons to call a bet:
• Our hand is ahead of our opponent's range. You could refer to this as a "value call"
• Our hand has sufficient implied odds to extract enough value on later streets should we improve.
• Our hand is behind our opponent's range, but good enough of the time for a call to show a profit given the pot odds we are being offered. Especially applicable on the river.
• To "float": calling a bet because we believe we will be able to bluff a later street profitably enough of the time.
• The expected value of our calls must always be weighed against that of us raising. Just because a call is profitable does not mean a raise will not be more so, and vice versa.
• If we are unable to call or raise profitably when facing a bet, that is what the fold button is for!

Checking

• When we check and are not closing the action, it is because we are intending to:
• Check/Raise - for any of the reasons that raising is profitable.
• Check/Call - for any of the reasons that make calling profitable.
• Check/Fold - if we cannot do either of the above profitably, we should check/fold.
• The expectations of check/raising and check/calling should be weighed against each other, and also compared with that of betting. Fairly frequently all three will be profitable, but one will have a significantly higher return.
• When we are closing the action, the expectation of checking behind should  be compared with that of betting. Even if betting is profitable, checking behind may have a higher expectation in some situations.

Good Float

• Our opponent, running 14/10 with a flop c-bet of 80% opens in MP1. We call from the CO with AhQs.
• The flop comes 3h5hTs, and our opponent c-bets 2/3 pot.
• Factors that make this a good spot to float:
• Our opponent's range has a reasonable amount of air and his c-bet stat suggests he frequently c-bets his air.
• Having the Ah acts as a blocker to our opponent having many combinations of flush draws which he is likely to be continuing with on the turn should we float the flop, while also giving us additional equity.
• Having two overcards, we will often have three to six outs should our opponent c/c our turn bet on a blank.

Bad Float

• Our opponent, running a positionally aware 13/9 with a flop c-bet of 50% opens UTG. A weaker player calls from middle position and we call from the BTN with 6d6s,
• The flop comes JhTh8d, and our opponent c-bets 90% of the pot. The weaker player folds.
• Factors that make this a bad spot to float:
• Our opponent has a strong UTG range.
• Based on his c-bet stat, it is unlikely our opponent will be betting his air multi-way on an extremely wet board. His bet sizing supports this.
• Our hand has very little chance to improve if we are checked to on the turn and our bluff is called.

Hand vs Range or Range vs Range?

• When playing against an opponent who is not thinking about our range or that we expect to never develop any history with, we need only play our hand against his range.
• When playing against an opponent who is thinking about our range, we should be attempting to play our range optimally against his range. Otherwise, we will inevitably develop tendencies which are trivially exploitable to a thinking player that is paying attention.
• By playing a range against a range well, we may sometimes sacrifice expected value with some parts of our range in order to gain a larger amount with others.

My Thoughts:

Definitely a video I would re-watch as the information is presented in a very clear and precise manner. The first 15 minutes of the video touches on basic theories but the explanations are top notch. Beginning and intermediate players could benefit from watching and re-watching that part to refresh their memory, especially when running or playing bad. The rest of the video is made up of HH review, live play, and a quick HEM stats review.

I very much like RonFar3's style of play and wish to emulate it. He puts a lot of thought into his decisions and goes through/compare all his options to choose the one that is MOST +EV. As a result, his style of play lends itself to more checking and less c-betting compared to other winning players. 

I feel that most people, myself included, overuse the c-bet as a standard strategy but fail to consider all their options. I need to seriously take a serious look at my game and see if I can improve in that aspect.