Hand Ranges vs Combinatorics Part 1 - What are hand ranges?

I've been doing some poker reading lately and I am still learning as I go, but I like to write down what I learned as it makes it easier for me to understand it when I am trying to explain it to someone else.

In the past I have been making my decisions based on opponents' hand range. What can he possibly have? What hand can he raise preflop with, check flop and bet turn? That is kind of what goes on in my head, especially when I bluff catch. Let me give you an example. Last week I was playing a $2/5 game and there was a live triple straddle $40. (yes we are crazy) All folded to me and I was on the big blind and looked down at KQo. I made it $105 (or something like that, my memory is not as good as it used to be) and triple straddler defended.

First of all he is a pretty aggro player and a good one at that. He will defend with a pretty wide range of hands but I think he recognizes me as a decent player so he won't go too crazy. I may be wrong but flop was like J75 rainbow. We were both pretty deep and I didn't want to get raised out of the hand and he is capable of doing that with air, so I checked. Surprisingly he checked back. Turn was a 6. I am thinking if he has a 4, 8, 9 or hit the 6 he will likely call my bet here or even raise as a semi-bluff. I checked to pot control and he checked as well! River was another J. I check, he bets $140.

What possible hand can he have to bet for value? What could he have defended with, checked back all streets and bet the river? Any Jack I would have heard of it by the turn. Any under pairs would have showdown value. Any pair on the board beats me but what value can get extract from me? Ace high has showdown value. So I determined that either he played it really tricky, otherwise my King high is good. And it was good.

This first part of my study I will discuss about hand ranges and how it can help our game.

1. Know your own hand range:
What hands do you open raise? What hands do you 3bet multiway? What hands do you 3bet heads up? What hands do you raise OOP? What hands do you raise late position? What hands do you call multiway? What hands do you defend your blinds with? The thing is, sometimes we rely too much on gut feeling and we don't even know our own ranges. And if there is a good player on the table, he may know your range better than you know yours.

2. Know your opponents' hand range:
When I sit down on an unfamiliar table, I try to pick up as much info as I can about my opponents. But if all 9 of them are unfamiliar to you, who do you look at? Usually I go with those that are more aggressive (more likely you will play hands with them). Then those with lots of chips (you can profit more from them). Pay attention. When they flip over their cards. What do they play with? In what position? What kind of action?

3. Mix it up:
You ever hear this comment? Alex will never raise with AK in that spot! or he would definitely call with his flush draw on the turn. As much as we want to be unpredictable, overtime we will form a pattern and good players will pick up on that. Know your hand range, then mix it up. Limp AK once in a while. 3 bet with small pockets. Squeeze with suited connectors. Advertise, show people your rags, but don't overdo it.

So how do you put someone on a range? This is roughly my thought process.

• What type of player is he/she? TAG? LAG? TP? LP?
• What is his position? Now we may make the mistake of just thinking of the seat location, sb/bb/co/hj/bu etc. but we need to think of position as relative to the preflop action. For example he may be early position, but he was the last to act to the preflop raise. 
• What was his preflop action? Open raise? Limp? Limping multiway? Limp on last to act? 3bet last to act? 
• Who else was in the hand? The image of the other players does affect hand selections. For example in an article I posted before, playing against tight players, I prefer not to play KT, QJ type of hands but rather love 64, 75 type of hands. Playing against loose players KT & QJ are monsters. 
• Post flop action. C-bet? Donk bet? Check raise? Check back? Check call? Call in position? and also sizing.
• Board texture. Draw heavy? Dry? Paired board? 
• Don't forget about yourself! What kind of image are you projecting? What kind of player are you perceived to be? What was your action? What can you possibly have? 

After the analysis, usually my conclusion will be:

He may have this, this, this, or this

Out of the possible hands, I can beat 3, but lose to 2

That means a 60% chance of winning and if the price is right I call. If not, I reevaluate and most likely fold. 

In my example above:

Ace high beats me (one hand) but I determined he is unlikely to bet here. small pockets beat me (one hand) and he may turn his deuces or threes into a bluff, I can beat K high (one hand), I can beat air (one hand) that means a 2:1 situation. I need to call 140 for a 385 pot so I did. Later when we discuss combinatorics the calculation would be vastly different.