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Explaining........"ranges"
What are "ranges", or more correctly, "hand ranges"?
Do they differ according to position?
What is the difference between a raising range & a calling range?
Why are they so important?
How do we "assign" (or guess....) other players likely ranges?
When we say "I put him on......" are we basing that on the range we assume the villain might play in this particular spot?
Name some typical opening & calling ranges for a regular Freezeout MTT.
Comments
"What are "ranges", or more correctly, "hand ranges"?"
The strength or type of 'holding' or 'hand' a player is likely to have. Sometimes this can be quite polarised and it is likely in a given situation that a player is likely to have a 'narrow range' of cards they may be playing with, based on the situation. Conversely sometimes they may have a 'wide range' of cards they may be playing with, based on the situation.
"Do they differ according to position?"
Position can and generally should have a big influence on what your range is. If you have, for example, A3 and are in early position, there are a lot of players still to act after you and a fair chance someone has a better hand than you. On the other hand if you have A3 and it is folded to you in the SB then you have only 1 player with 1 combination of cards to 'get through', making it more likely (but in no way certain) that you have the best hand.
"What is the difference between a raising range & a calling range?"
If you are opening a pot (especially in position) you are taking more control of the hand/situation and putting your opponent on the 'back foot'. Ideally you are often hoping to get folds and pick up 'free chips' without having to do anything silly like win the hand at showdown (although sometimes you will actually have a strong hand and want calls too). In this situation as you have your opponent on the back foot and may pick up chips uncontested you can be a bit more liberal with the type of hands you open raise with and may have a wider open 'raising range'.
When you are calling however you are now the one playing the guessing game and hoping your hand can stand up to a showdown on the river. Therefore you may have a tighter or more narrow 'calling range'. Obviously other factors can change these dynamics, for example you may intentionally call with a weak hand because you feel your opponent may fold to pressure later in the hand. In general though your calling range will be more narrow than your raising range.
Another example may be if you have 44. You may be happy to shove this hand as it is likely you will be ahead and you only have 15 BB's for example, so this may be in your opening or shoving range. You are adding into the mix when making this decision to shove this hand that you may well just pick the chips in the middle up without having to win at showdown.
On the other hand if someone has shoved and you have the same hand with the same 15 BB's, you may decide that it is not the best hand to play a board of cards with, you could be horribly dominated and even if you are not you may just be flipping. You also don't have fold equity as the other person has shoved and may therefore decide that 44, although in your shoving range, is not in your calling range.
"Why are they so important?"
Basically if your ranges are wrong then you are putting chips at risk in situations where in the long run you are likely to lose chips/money/equity as they are not really the ideal cards for the situations.
"How do we "assign" (or guess....) other players likely ranges?"
Based on the information at our disposal. The first bit of information we have is our opponents table position. If they raise under the gun for example... Are they likely to do this with A2, A3, A4, A5, type hands? Or do they realise they have a lot of players still to act so would only do this with AT, AJ, AQ, AK, 99, TT, JJ, QQ, KK, AA type hands? As we have less and less players to act after us our range should 'in general' widen proportionally by each position until we get to our late position opening range.
Another factor influencing ranges can be player behaviour. Crudely if a player is opening every 2nd hand being dealt at the table, they are unlikely to be opening with only premium hands (unless the dealer is being astonishingly kind to the player). And obviously if a player has folded for 50 straight hands and then suddenly open raises they are more likely to have a premium hand. Therefore the number of hands a player is playing will give a clue as to the type of cards or 'range' they are working with.
Also sometimes you can notice small things like a player generally standard open raises with Ax type hands but tends to open shove all his chips in or raise higher with pairs. Betting pattern changes like this can also help assign a 'range' to a player.
Stack sizes also matter as the big stacks may be opening more to build their stacks or may be staying out of the action because they feel they don't need to 'mix it up' as they are in a comfort zone. Paying attention to your opponent's play will give you an idea how they view their stack and the 'range' of cards they are likely to be playing.
Obviously small stacks may be becoming increasingly desperate to pick some chips up and therefore shoving with wider ranges, or they may be short because they are so tight and are waiting on a monster. Again paying attention to their play will provide clues as to what types of cards they are playing.
Amongst other things, the stage of the tourney will alter many players ranges. Some will tighten up so they can increase their chance of 'getting into the payouts'. While others may start being very active, trying to pick chips up from tight players who are looking to 'get into the payouts', not too worried about busting as their goal is to get much deeper into the payouts where the money jumps are higher.
"When we say "I put him on......" are we basing that on the range we assume the villain might play in this particular spot?"
Yes, based on all the factors and information at our disposal we will assign them a 'range' that we 'put them on'. Then decide how best to play our opponent based on the type of hand we put them on.
"Name some typical opening & calling ranges for a regular Freezeout MTT."
This depends on all the factors above. There are push/fold and open raising charts kicking around online that suggest what your action should be based on your table position, stack size and stage of tourney. I don't think these take into account things like our opponents style, what happened in that tricky pot with our opponent 4 hands ago, our table image etc etc.
It also depends whether we are talking about preflop or postflop play and our opponent's understanding of the game. It also depends on our goals, are we looking to cash or looking to win, for example.
Procrastinating.
It might be worth looking into the catorgrisation of some ranges, how play them and play against them:
Merged Range
WHAT IT IS:
A merged range is one that contains a bit of everything. It has all the thick value, but also thin value, semi-bluffs, marginal-showdown and some air.
An example of this would be an old-school cbetting range where people would raise a wide range pre and cbet 80-90% of flops.
WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE
Against passive players. You get to realise your equity as villain isn’t raising you, you get some thin value, your semibluffs do just fine as you nearly always get to see rivers unless villains fold, and you have decent fold equity with air, and will have barrelling opportunities later in the hand – those bluff spots will never be denied as villain isn’t raising you out of the hand.
HOW TO PLAY AGAINST IT
Raise. Thin value and semi-bluffs hate to be raised; it’s a disasterous result if you have to fold a semibluff or mid pair to a turn x/jam. By raising you force them to fold equity share, you turn their thin value into bluff-catchers and you can abuse wide merged ranges by raising much of your continuing range.
Capped Range
WHAT IS IT
A capped range is one that doesn’t contain monsters or strong value.
An example might be when villain checks flop, you check back and villain checks turn to you. Here villain is unlikely to have many strong hands or even draws / semi-bluffs. Your range may also be capped when you check back flop.
WHEN IT IS APPROPRIATE.
Capped ranges are often by-products of your value being better placed elsewhere. An example might be your flatting range in the SB v a BTN raise. Your positional disadvantage post will incentivise you to 3-bet much of your strong holdings – leaving your flatting range capped to mid-pairs, suited broadway etc. Against players who don’t like to use big sizings you don’t mind capped ranges as you still have bluff catchers, thin value, draws etc – as well as air to bluff with. Another canonical example is your check back range on a board like QJ8ss. Your strongest hands want value and protection, but your strong value range is thin on this board; villains range is strong on this texture and you have a bunch of marginal hands that do not want to be raised on this board.
HOW TO PLAY AGAINST IT
Bet BIG. Big sizings really put capped ranges in a tight spot. You have J7 on KJ9sss and villain leads for 150% of the pot on the turn after you check back flop. Do you love life?
Cupped range
WHAT IS IT
A cupped range is one that has no junk and is made up primarily of value.
An example might be your continuing range to two barrels on a dry board.
WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE
Against loose aggressive players. You can't play wide against them as they are raising you whether you limp or minraise and they check-raise your cbets. You drop out the junk and let them donate to your value.
HOW TO PLAY AGAINST IT.
When someone has a strong range respect that and don’t bet into it. Play passively and intelligently, be ready to fold.
Polarised Range.
WHAT IS IT
A range that is made up off nuts and air. No middling hands.
An example might be your 3 barrel and over-bet-shove-river range, or river x/raise range. Note when you c/c c/c draws your draws will become polarised by the river. Either they will have made the nuts or will have missed and become air. Draws are self-polarising [ignoring hitting bluff-catchers / thin value]
WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE
When your opponent has few traps and a range comprising mainly bluff-catchers. Having a polarised range is hella-fun. You get to bet BIG. By adjusting the amount of AIR to NUTS in your range you can make your opponents bluff catchers indifferent between calling and folding – no matter if they call or fold their expectation long term is to win nothing from the pot. Your expected profit is the entire pot. Boss, eh.
For example if we have a range of 50% air and 50% nuts and a pot sized bet on the river, then by betting all of our nuts and half of our air [so we have 2/3 nuts and 1/3 air) it really doesn’t matter what villain does, our expectation is to profit by the entire pot.
We can demonstrate this
EV(call) = x(p+c)-y*(c)
Where
X = % we win
P = pot size
C = call size
Y = % we lose
Plugging numbers in:
EV(call) = ..333*(1+1)-.666*1
EV(call) = .6666-.6666
EV(call) = 0
EV(fold) = 0
So it really doesn’t matter if we call or fold. Villain wins the pot.
HOW TO PLAY AGAINST IT
Call / Fold appropriately. We saw above it doesn’t matter if we call or fold. But that was against a perfectly balanced polarised range. Most people won’t be anywhere near balanced and so you wont be indifferent between calling and folding. So much so that if villain bluffs slightly too much then you should always call. If villain bluffs slightly too little you should always fold.
In practice use reads.
As an aside against a balanced villain you want to call enough to make villains bluffs indifferent to betting and checking. In the example above against a pot sized bet with facing a range of 2/3 nuts you should call half the time. This prevents him from being able profit from bluffs [ie prefer bluffing always when you are too tight] or by being able to value-own you [by never bluffing in the case of you calling too much] Again balanced play is delicate. Agianst a villain that bluff-catches too little you should bluff always. Against someone who bluff-catches too much you should never bluff.
Against good players use blockers to decide when to call. If you block nuts [for example holding a spade on a board when villain is repping the spade flush having rivered], then be more ready to bluff catch.
Having traps in your range can be advantageous. When you start adding traps a polarised range cannot bet nearly as big and it really hampers its EV.
Polarised ranges are a big beast to define and describe I have only scratched the surface above. I recommend will tiptons books for further reading on any of the above.
Marky and Teddy have made brilliant replies to this. I can't really add anything but I thought this deserved a bump as they really put time and thought into their answers.