Hey everyone! A little backstory: I host a weekly micro stakes NLHE game with a group of guys every Wednesday. We’ve played together almost weekly for about 8 months. We all started around the same time and I would say as a whole the group has improved. Just because of my obsessive personality, I’ve easily spent the most time studying and learning the game and am probably the most positive as far as earnings since we began. We’re all just playing for entertainment mostly but I do enjoy getting better at the game.
I understand the concept of ranges and feel like I can apply it solidly when I play online. However, the group of guys I play with haven’t studied much and it seems that they will open some wild, super -EV hands from any position on the table. So far my only defense to this has been making big 3-bets pre-flop and hoping to take it down there unless I have a super premium hand. If one or more of them gets past the flop it’s tough because a relatively harmless looking Q-7-2 board could have connected with their Q-2 hand (it’s happened, trust me). Nitting up has worked to take home small wins every week but it makes for a slightly boring game.
In summary: what are you recommendations for playing against people who don’t play ranges? Is the answer either nit up and be bored or play looser and deal with the swings? Or is there a piece of strategy that I haven’t learned yet that’s missing?
Sincerely, a relative poker newbie
I understand the concept of ranges and feel like I can apply it solidly when I play online. However, the group of guys I play with haven’t studied much and it seems that they will open some wild, super -EV hands from any position on the table. So far my only defense to this has been making big 3-bets pre-flop and hoping to take it down there unless I have a super premium hand. If one or more of them gets past the flop it’s tough because a relatively harmless looking Q-7-2 board could have connected with their Q-2 hand (it’s happened, trust me). Nitting up has worked to take home small wins every week but it makes for a slightly boring game.
In summary: what are you recommendations for playing against people who don’t play ranges? Is the answer either nit up and be bored or play looser and deal with the swings? Or is there a piece of strategy that I haven’t learned yet that’s missing?
Sincerely, a relative poker newbie