The importance of polarized regions

In this article, we’ll discuss Polarized Sights, their purpose, benefits, and what we need to consider when dealing with them.

First of all for those unfamiliar with the term, the field of polarization is made up of two distinct sets of hands, one group consisting of what we might call “by value” and the other A set consists of the hands we want to use as “by value”. bluff. It can be inferred from the definition that polarization is nothing more than some type of range formation in which we assign each hand to the group it can belong to.

Knowing the range of polarization will help you have a healthy stack.

As a simple example, let’s imagine a scenario where, while sitting in the small blind, we start from the button. In this situation, it is very typical to build a polarized 3-betting range where we include value hands (marked green in the matrix) and bluffs (marked purple).

Like you, as you can see above, bluffs are not necessarily bad. The reason these hands are 3beat is based on the fact that they play better when they are aggressively advancing in an attempt to knock out their opponent than when they are passive or indirect in doing so.

Structural polarization regions are very flexible and vary a lot depending on the situation we find ourselves in. For example, in the scenario we saw earlier, a hand like AQo was included in our value range, but it could be part of a bluffing range, for example, if we weren’t in the steal zone in first position.

Polarized ranges are often used in pre-flop betting after opening raises, ie. H. 3-bet, 4-bet, etc. It doesn’t make sense (with a few exceptions) to build a polarizing open-ended raising range because if we get into the hand first, we’re trying to finish it with the best hand we can. Polarized open-raising ranges are the exception when we use a mixed limp and open-raising strategy. In these situations, we can create a polarized opening range consisting of the best hands in the range and a set of marginal hands.

After the flop, we can also polarize our betting. So we want to bet a certain percentage of hands on a given flop. The c-bet zone is slightly more complex to construct than the preflop zone because it is influenced by many factors such as board type and position. I think you can understand it better with a graphical example. In this case, we raise on the button and the big blind protects us. Let’s see what our betting range is on the flop of Rc6c2d.

This time, let’s see how our betting range is made up of the set of hands we bet for value (the set of hands we consider to be the best or equal). to top pair), we see that we have hands that are worse than top pair, and we check them because we want the hands to have some value if we don’t attack the flop. In this set of bluffs, there are several types. On the one hand, these items, such as hands with clubs, project onto flushes, or onto 43s, 54s, 87s, or 98s, which are hands with straights. We call these hands “best bluffs” because they are the ones that balance out very good plays.

A hand that can connect very strong plays in the back streets, and adding up our cards when we look at the time can take the opponent out of his hands, which makes us bet Betting is very profitable. We then choose another set of weaker hands depending on the opponent and the situation. For example, hands like QJ, KJ, KQ or similar can be good bluffs because on the one hand we want to end the hand on the flop, but on the other hand we can still play middle or strong hands on later streets .

Based on these examples, mine is what I think is more or less clear how polarized regions are constructed. But what are they actually used for? Or, how does using a polarized range help us?

The fact that our range is polarized allows us to make less complex decisions when playing the game because when we realize we are betting or bluffing for value, we Rarely do we find ourselves in situations where we don’t know where we are. To illustrate this with an example, let’s imagine we’re on the borderline with JJ, an aggressive tight player who starts from MP, and we decide to 3-bet our hand because he’s definitely on his raise. Dominant in the note range. It’s the MP player’s turn and decides to 4-bet in response. What are we doing now? Our hand dominates his raising range, but relative to his 4-bet range, we are in a situation where calling a 4-bet is inconvenient, and a 5-bet is probably a very bad idea since his range is closed and He dominates us. A good idea is to call his open raise, leaving the 3-bet with a hand so strong that we can react aggressively to his 4-bet, or fold without a problem if our opponent reacts aggressively.

Polarized ranges also provide us with guidelines on how to respond to the game with strong hands and bluffs, so we Bluffing in the latter sequence. For example, if we 3-bet the opening button from the big blind, our range structure allows us to put a lot of pressure on a flop play like AK4 because we have a lot of hands in our range, making it weak. The hand wants to play aggressively.

However, a polarized range is our bread and butter at the poker table right now. Therefore, when we find players with polarized ranges, we need to identify situations where they are applying pressure with marginal hands using their assumed strength of play.The best defense against polarized play is to have a tight passive play area and use our polarized play area to respond aggressively.