.jpg "The Ultimate Balancing Your Checking Range Cheat Sheet")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
As you start climbing up the stakes, you will encounter more tough opponents who will try to make your life difficult in every possible spot.
One way they can do this is by trying to push you out of pots every time you check to them.
This is why it’s important to protect your checking ranges to always keep your opponents guessing.
In this article, you will learn simple ways to balance your ranges without needing to know a bunch of complex theory.
Important note: balancing your ranges only works against good poker players.
All the theory goes out the window when you’re playing against recreational poker players, so be careful when employing these strategies at your local casino.
With that in mind, let’s get right into it.
1. Why Do You Need to Balance Your Checking Range?
Let’s start with the basic definitions first.
To balance your checking range means to occasionally check with strong hands instead of betting in order to keep your range balanced and keep your opponents guessing about your hand strength.
When you have a balanced range, your opponent can’t exploit you in any way by making adjustments to their strategy.
The downside to this strategy is that you’re also not exploiting any potential weaknesses in your opponent’s game, either.
So balancing your ranges only works if you’re playing against competent players who are actually paying attention to your betting patterns and playing tendencies.
Let’s start with a basic example to better understand the concept.
Let’s say you open-raise preflop in the MP (middle position) and see the following flop:
A♥8♠2♥
Think about which hands you would c-bet on this flop, and which hands you would check with.
Let’s say you always bet with your strong hand like sets, two-pair hands, flush draws, and top pair hands.
So which hands are you checking with instead?
You are probably checking with hands that have missed the flop and/or have a poor chance of improvement on future streets.
So if your opponent is paying attention to your betting patterns, they may realize that your range is very weak when you check.
This allows them to exploit you by trying to bluff you out of the pot on future streets.
So you should occasionally check with some of your strong hands, as well.
This way, you’re “protecting” your checking range from becoming too weak and vulnerable to getting exploited.
If your opponent decides to bluff you on future streets, you can call them and bluff catch instead of folding.
So in the future, your opponents will always have to keep guessing your hand strength, and will have to be extra careful if they decide to bluff you.
Again, this only works if you’re playing against decent players who aren’t making a lot of big, fundamental mistakes in their game.
Against recreational players, forget all about balance because all of this is likely to go over their head, anyway.
Instead, keep things simple and just value bet your strong hands, no matter how obvious it may seem.
But if you’re playing against more competent regulars, it’s important to at least be familiar with the concept of protecting your ranges.
So in the rest of the article, we’ll take a look at how you can protect your checking ranges and crush even the tough regs in your games.
This is something that I also touched on in my latest video, 9 reasons why poker pros are always winning (and you aren't)
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2. Include Strong Hands in Your Checking Range
The simplest way to protect your checking ranges is to occasionally check with your monster hands on the flop.
When I say monster hands, I’m talking about hands that have an overwhelming amount of equity against your opponent’s range.
Put another way, consider occasionally slowplaying your very strong hands on the flop.
To slowplay means to play your hand passively (i.e. check and call instead of betting and raising) in order to conceal your hand strength.
There are a few benefits of (sometimes) slowplaying your strong hands on the flop:
First of all, you’re obviously protecting your checking range.
Secondly, you’re allowing your opponent to “catch up” on future streets, and potentially make a hand that’s actually willing to pay you off.
Checking your strong hands may also compel your opponents to try to bluff you, so you can trap them and catch them off guard.
Let’s look at an example again to illustrate the point.
Range Protection Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt K♠K♣ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 2.5 BB.
Villain calls from the BB (big blind).
Pot: 6 BB
Flop: K♥8♠3♦
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should check behind.
In this example, let’s say your opponent called preflop with a range of small to medium pocket pairs, suited connectors, and some broadway hand like AJ, KQ and so on.
Against the range, you have a whopping 98% equity.
The exact range doesn’t really matter here.
Either way you cut it, you’re always going to have a huge amount of equity when you flop a set.
The board is also bone-dry, so there aren’t any straight and flush draws you need to worry about.
If you make a standard c-bet here, your opponent will just fold their hand a vast majority of the time.
So slowplaying here makes sense because:
a) it allows your opponent to “catch up” and
b) it may induce them to bluff on future streets.
If your opponent has some sort of an Ax hand and they hit an Ace on the turn, they’re quite likely to think they have the best hand.
The same goes if they have some sort of a pocket pair and somehow manage to hit a set on the turn.
By the way, see my ultimate guide to playing pocket pairs if you struggles with these hands.
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3. Check Back When Your Hand Doesn't Need Protection
Protecting your checking ranges can backfire if you employ this strategy at the wrong times.
As mentioned, you shouldn’t really bother with playing a balanced range if you’re playing against opponents who have unbalanced ranges themselves.
Another thing to ask yourself is if you really want to give your opponent a free card.
If your hand has a huge amount of equity, and it’s unlikely to get weaker on future streets, then checking back makes a lot of sense.
But even if your hand is ahead on the flop, your opponent will usually have a lot of equity against you.
So the downside of checking is the fact that you’re allowing your opponent to realize their equity for cheap.
This is a big problem if you have some sort of a strong, but vulnerable hand like top pair, top kicker.
For example, let’s say you are dealt A♥K♣ and the flop is: K♦8♠7♦
You are likely to have the best hand here, but your hand is very vulnerable to getting outdrawn.
There are multiple potential straight and flush draws on the board, so if you check on this flop, you’re allowing your opponent to draw out on you for free, and potentially making a monster hand on the turn.
By the way, this is one of my 6 poker tips every online poker beginner should know.
Contrast this to the example where you flop a set on a dry board, where it’s highly unlikely your opponent will have a stronger hand, both on the flop and the future streets.
So when you check to protect your range, think about the board texture and how potential turn and river cards can influence both your hand and your opponent’s range.
You’ll often come to the conclusion that it’s better to make a standard c-bet on the flop, especially when you have a potential value betting hand.
Checking on one street means the pot won’t be growing as much as it could, so it only makes sense to check if it means you’ll be able to get more value on future streets this way.
Range Protection Example Hand #2
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♥K♣ in the CO (cutoff). You open-raise to 2.5 BB. Villain calls from the BB (big blind).
Flop: K♠3♦3♥
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should check behind.
In this spot, checking back can make sense because your hand doesn’t really mind any turn cards.
The board is also very dry, so it’s very unlikely your opponent could have connected with it in some meaningful way.
There’s also no draws you should potentially worry about.
There aren’t a lot of 3x hands in their range that make sense, and Kx hands are also unlikely because you have a King blocker in your hand.
So it’s a good idea to check back and allow your opponent to potentially catch up on future streets.
If you want to learn how to use combos and blocker to better hand read against your opponents, check out my third book, The Microstakes Playbook.
4. Mix in Strong Draws Into Your Checking Range
Aside from strong made hands into your checking range, you can also add in some draws to balance your ranges.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with playing your draws aggressively on the flop, as well.
In fact, this is usually the best strategy, because it gives you more than one way to win the pot.
You can either win the pot right away if you make your opponent fold, or you can win an even bigger pot if you hit your draw on future streets.
As a general rule, the stronger your draw, the more aggressively you should play it.
That’s because strong draws give you plenty of equity to fall back on in case your bluff gets called.
When you bet the flop with a drawing hand, this is known as a semi-bluff. This is one of my 6 highly profitable poker tips all beginners should be using.
A semibluff is a bluff with a hand that has the potential of making the best hand on future streets.
Semibluffs are usually preferable to stone-cold bluffs, where you can only win the hand by making your opponent fold.
But when it comes to range protection, drawing hands usually work very well.
That’s because you don’t always necessarily want to play for a big pot when you have a drawing hand.
For example, if you have a draw that has a slim chance of completing, or you don’t want your opponent to raise you and put you at an awkward spot.
By adding a few drawing hands into your checking range along with a few strong made hands, you will balance your range in a way that makes it virtually impossible for your opponent to hand read against you.
Range Protection Example Hand #3
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♥Q♥ UTG (under the gun). You open-raise to 2.5 BB. Villain calls from the BU (button).
Pot: 6.5 BB
Flop: J♥T♥3♣
You: ???
You should check.
In this spot, you have a monster draw. Aside from the nut flush draw, any King will give you the nuts straight.
And the King of hearts will actually give you the royal flush!
It may be tempting to just blast off a big bet on the flop, but you can also just check here.
That’s because your draw is so strong that you often actually have the best hand.
You can make a standard c-bet and get called by SOME weaker hands, but you will also make your opponent fold a big part of their range.
And in terms of raw equity, you’re doing fairly well against your opponent’s overall range.
You also don’t necessarily need to build up a big pot right away.
If your opponent has a weaker flush draw, for example, you’re going to be able to win a huge pot against them, anyway.
Also, slowplaying can induce them to bluff, so you can potentially get value from weaker hands that way.
These days, it takes more than waiting around for the nuts to be a profitable long term winner.
You also need to know how to play in a lot of marginal spots, like playing out of position versus aggressive players.
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5. Check Against Trigger Happy Opponents
Checking with strong made hands on the flop is an effective strategy against overly aggressive opponents.
If you slowplay against passive opponents, it can often backfire, especially at the lower stakes where you can’t often expect your opponents to build up the pot for you.
And slowplaying only works if you can expect to get more value on future streets than you would by betting yourself.
So aside from considering the board runout, you should also consider your opponent’s playing tendencies.
Good poker players are more likely to play aggressively against you, especially if you show signs of weakness.
They will be more aware of your range capping actions, and they’re likely to attack your capped ranges at almost any opportunity.
I discuss this in much more detail in my 2nd book, Modern Small Stakes.
Your range is capped when you make a range-capping action like checking or calling.
Capped ranges theoretically have less strong hands because strong hands are more likely to play aggressively (bet or raise) instead of checking or calling.
So protecting your checking range essentially prevents your opponents from attacking your capped ranges.
As mentioned, you do this by adding a few strong hands in your checking range to always keep your opponent guessing.
When you do this, your opponents are likely to take a stab at the pot because they think they can attack your capped range.
When that happens, you can decide between continuing to slowplay by calling, or you can surprise them outright by raising or check-raising.
Check-raising in particular is very effective, especially versus crazy players. because it offsets your positional disadvantage.
While you usually check-raise the flop as the preflop caller, you can also do so when you are the preflop aggressor.
So when you decide to protect your checking range, you should know that you’re often going to encounter aggressive actions from your opponents.
This is obviously useful when you have a monster hand, but it can be tricky when you have a more marginal hand.
Checking back with more marginal hand can also be a good idea against overly aggressive opponents if you want to avoid the risk of facing a check-raise.
Checking back also allows you to control the size of the pot, which can make playing on future streets easier, as well.
Range Protection Example Hand #4
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt K♣Q♦ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 2.5 BB. A loose and aggressive villain calls from the BB (big blind).
Pot: 6.5 BB
Flop: A♣Q♥8♣
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should check back.
You can certainly go for a standard c-bet in a spot like this, but checking back is also a good option.
Facing a check-raise would certainly suck here, and then you would either need to call with a marginal hand, or you would have to fold and give up a ton of equity.
You certainly don’t want to play for a huge pot with only a second pair, but you often have the best hand here.
So checking back can induce your opponent to bluff on future streets.
Your hand also has a relatively stable showdown value, so you don’t really mind a lot of turn
cards.
Protecting your Checking Range - Summary
As you start climbing up the stakes, it’s important to occasionally mix up your game to constantly keep your opponents guessing.
This is where an advanced poker strategy like balancing your ranges comes into play.
To sum up, here’s how you can protect your checking ranges to constantly keep your opponents on their toes.
1. Why protect your checking range?
If you always bet your strong made hands, your range becomes very weak every time you check.
More skilled opponents can easily pick up on this and bully you every time you check the flop.
This is why you should occasionally check with your strong hands in order to protect your checking range.
2. Add strong hands into your checking range
The easiest way to protect your checking range is to check your monster hands on the flop.
The best spots to do this in are spots where your opponent is likely to fold if you make a standard c-bet.
Slowplaying in a spot can allow you to extract more value on future streets.
3. Check back when your hand doesn’t need protection
Checking potentially allows your opponent to improve their hand for free, so be careful about checking back with hands that are vulnerable to getting outdrawn.
For example, one pair hands are often vulnerable because they potentially get weaker as the hand progresses.
4. Check with your strong draws
Aside from your monster hands, you can also add a few drawing hands into your checking range.
This way, your range will be perfectly balanced and your opponents will have a hard time putting you on your exact hand.
5. Check against aggressive opponents
If you’re checking with your strong hands, it’s better to do it against opponents who can actually build up the pot for you.
So try targeting more aggressive opponents who are likely to take a stab at the pot if you check to them.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
