How to Identify a Polarized Range?

Gilead

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When an opponent makes a huge river bet, they usually have either the nuts or a bluff. How do you adjust your strategy against polarized ranges?
 
najisami

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When an opponent makes a huge river bet, they usually have either the nuts or a bluff. How do you adjust your strategy against polarized ranges?
It really depends on the opponent and on how the hand has been played.
What type of player he is? Does his big bet make any sense? How long did he take before coming up with that bet? ...
 
Uncloggie

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Is that a thing ? I have never heard that term before.

How to Identify a Polarized Range?

What comes to mind is ...

Look for the kitchen stove wearing cool sunglasses.

But your question is actually very basic. Donkey vs shark , usually pretty easy to spot after a few hands play.

Mind you, I think a good shark plays like a donkey sometimes too 😉
 
Goggelheimer

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Perhaps some videos from hungry horse poker (on YouTube) may help.
They are made mostly for live cash game, but concepts will work on more than one level(game).
Mainly the videos that deal with ranges may be of interest for you.
 
jseag2025

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Is that a thing ? I have never heard that term before.

How to Identify a Polarized Range?

What comes to mind is ...

Look for the kitchen stove wearing cool sunglasses.

But your question is actually very basic. Donkey vs shark , usually pretty easy to spot after a few hands play.

Mind you, I think a good shark plays like a donkey sometimes too 😉
That's a very common play today, I've just got back into playing after over 10 years and the game has changed a lot. If you haven't heard of polarized ranges, you need to study up. Check out Jonathan Little on YouTube.
 
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85champ07

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A couple things to ask yourself; how often is your opponent aggressive on the river? Did your opponent continuation bet on every street? Is there any logical reason for them to bluff you based on position and action? How much fold equity does your opponent have? How many BB is your opponent betting vs what level are the blinds at? If you are a passive player seeing a large river bet can be a coin flip, unless in that moment you have grest hand equity. If your an aggressive player and you have driven the action, they've called every street and you have no hand equity then I say trust your gut and not risk it. Best way to know the opponents range style is to focus on how they play over a large set of hands, but this not always certain as poker is more than just a handful of general rules.
 
akmost

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Very nice question , till the river based on his position, his play pre/post flop we should be able to narrow down his range.
So if his play doesn't make any sense we can call , if he is a balanced good player we take our time and we have a decision and still we must have in mind his tendencies!
 
Claudiunm

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Nowadays poker is really crazy. I've experienced some situations where the villain raises pre-flop, on the flop on the turn and on the river to end up opening a solid T7o. And the worst thing is that sometimes they get it right... I think it's important to watch the player and always be careful because they can hit something and often, when they get it right, they don't let go... even if they hit a 6
 
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Over folding to large river bets will make you a lot more money than hero calling will because no one has well balanced ranges.

I usually try and ask myself what/how many bluffs villain is going to need to have here and if they are going to be near that based on the type of player they are and then I ask myself what my best bluff catches are going to be vs this type of player and his estimated range.

In most cases you're going to find calling down with traditional bluff catchers is going to be too light because most people will be betting too linear on the river however some of these hands will become slam dunk calls vs people who have a tendency to over bluff the river.


It's a complicated game and most tendencies you pick up in your opponents game can be countered for a profit, while I like your initial question on how do we identify a polarized range, we should also be asking ourselves how often are the villains were playing against going to be polarizing properly here... the answer to which is going to be almost never.

GL

EDS
 
christovam

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Those very high All-ins of more than 100 BB when the hero has fewer chips tend to be a polarized range, as he can have a great game and trick you into thinking he has nothing. But, most of the time, these are trashing ranges, because the villain takes advantage of the amount of chips.
 
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Lorsqu’un adversaire fait une énorme mise à la rivière, il a généralement soit les nuts, soit un bluff. Comment adaptez-vous votre stratégie face aux gammes polarisées ?
Faced with a polarized range on the river, the key lies in analyzing the relative strength of your hand, the odds of the pot and the tendencies of your opponent. If you have a strong hand or the nuts, a call may be justified, but if your hand is marginal, more often than not, it is wiser to fold.
 
gardin555

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When an opponent makes a huge river bet, they usually have either the nuts or a bluff. How do you adjust your strategy against polarized ranges?

If the player you talk about have nuts or bluff, that not necessary means he polarized range, it could be that he is TAG or LAG player who is newbie on poker, you can see this kind of players too much in microstakes games.
I think polarize range is more used in cash game than tournament games, but in any case is one high level strategy.
We can't identify to the opponent polarized range, because the goal of polarize the range is for to don't be identified, hide our real range.

The range is the cards the oponnent think we play more and the possible cards we have in one hand.
The polarized range is our own strategy to hide our range to the opponent. Its means if we have a tight image on table, we could to call or bet in some positions or situations to get the pot, for example with the low part of our range, that's not necessary mean its a bluff.
If we always play A10s+ TT+, etc, but sometimes we polarized our range, and open raise, or cbet or 3bet with our worst part of our range, for example 910, 89, 10j, gap suited, etc.
I am not bluffing there, I am taking advantage of my image or my range in certain situations, but this is not a bad hand, this is the worst part of my range, so I am polarizing my range there.

I think there are no exist a strategy against this, the only way you could try to guess if he is polarizing or not, try to read the player, is known the players, observer him, how he is playing, his numbers, stats, etc.
But I think polarized range is more about our own strategy, more than try to read the opponent´s PR.
 
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TeUnit

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Think this happens the most when a players previous actions/position dont align with having a "middle strength hand" like mid pair or a mid strength draw.

Often when this happens they have used odd or different bet sizing.
 
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