Your Opponent’s Range
ONLINE POKER is a game based on what you hold versus what your opponent holds. That is, that is what is based on in theory, at showdown, when all the poker cards have been dealt. Many times, we don’t get to showdown, and thus online poker becomes a game of what I think you hold versus what I hold, or how I can manipulate you into believing that what I have is better than yours (if its isn’t) or that what I have is worse than yours (if it’s actually better). The back and forth on this kind of mindgame could go on conceivably forever. The basis of interaction between your hand and your opponent hand, since you can’t actually see their hand, comes down to a question of narrowing down the possibilities. We begin the hand by assigning a range of cards to the opponent based on what the book expects them to do, what you’ve seen them do, how wide their variance is, and etc. As the hand changes, the opponent continues to give information that then helps to narrow that range. Remembering the range as the hand continues and leaving outs for yourself both as ways to bluff and ways to make big lay downs is important in the range. Giving credit for a hand or knowing they can’t possibly call is the foundation of solid play. More than your own hand, you should be considering that range of the opponent and how best to manipulate it based on the range you have presented, and what they know of you as an opponent in return.
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