What is a Broken Range???
Has anyone ever come across the term "Broken Range"??? I first heard this word when watching Saulo Costa's video on "Playing against Recs as the Aggressor IP". Below is the context he used it in:
[Preflop]
Hero (CO): opens 2.5bb with Ah4h
Villain (BB): calls
[Flop] Ks9h8s (5.5bb)
V checks
H checks, saying this is a draw-heavy board and Ah4h cannot defend against a check-raise.
[Turn] Td
V checks
H bets 4bb
V calls
[River] 6s (13.5bb)
V checks
H bets 27bb
V folds
Commenting on this hand, Saulo says that "The idea is that you have to be extremely aggressive against recreationals in lines where their ranges are BROKEN - when they check in the middle of the hand. When they check either on the turn or the river, they will have a BROKEN range and we can apply pressure to those ranges."
My question: What exactly is a "broken range"??? I couldn't find any other sources
in which this term is mentioned. The answer generated by AI isn't helpful at all.
6 Replies
Jeez, V was capped and weak. Period. Saulo is overcomplicating this ****.
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Broken ranges... as in deviating from GTO?
making plays that keep the game different from GTO aka broken ranges make it so that you can use creative lines. kindof like the current meta in chess of remembering 17 lines of the Ruy
Lopez to somehow gain an advantage.
in Saulos example, using a broken range means to deviate from GTO to 'break' the recreational.... if they would call 5-20bb bet and you'd lose, but would consider/fold to 25++ big bets, then this 'breaks' their range
Saulo: The idea is that you have to be extremely aggressive against recreationals in lines where their ranges are BROKEN - when they check in the middle of the hand. When they check either on the turn or the river, they will have a BROKEN range and we can apply pressure to those ranges.
By "broken" Saulo just means the recreational player's range is capped. Super weak. Unprotected. So you can run it over with aggression.
A GTO strategy typically protects its checking range. Recreational players do not.
"Broken range" isn't standard poker jargon. Saulo is just using that word here for dramatic effect to say their range construction is extremely bad.
I've heard of "broken lines", like bet-check-bet, but not broken ranges. Agree with the others here who say V's range is just capped, and maybe that's what Saulo is trying to say, using a different term.
Conceivably, maybe he means that V is supposed to lead the turn when we check back the K-high flop as the PFR, and when he checks to us twice, he's creating a situation where he simply doesn't have any hands that can check-call three streets.
I'm just guessing, but maybe he's theorizing that V should lead turn with anything that constitutes value, and also lead with a ton of bluffs, because we're supposed to c-bet the flop with all our value, and a ton of bluffs, and therefore when he checks river, he's making it easy for us to bet with ATC, and he has to fold.
Not sure I buy it here, with three spades and four to a straight on board. Maybe Saulo thinks V is never trapping, and never has anything that can call a big bet here, but I'm not sure why. Seems like V could show up with some straights or flushes, and might get sticky with some 2P, even though those combos should mostly fold.
I'm quite sure he meant to say broken line not broken range, since what you are describing are broken lines and his advices makes a lot of sense in that context.
Capped. Snapped. Smashed to bits by GTO illiteracy..
Fish rarely check completed FDs, 2p or straights thrice. OOP told us he doesn't have much to call a river OB, whereas our range can credibly still rep tons of value and completed draws.
A not illiterate GTO player will smuggle in enough value here to make us indifferent and/or sniff out the fact that we didn't bet the flop which reduces our flushes and start calling lighter. But a rec is never going to reach that level of thought in the time limit. I'm not sure I would if I was daydreaming either.
Hence: oop is a broken man/range
Ironically IP is also now broken in this spot heh, so this would not be a good play vs a reg who will have a tighter range otr and know that IP might overextend in this line.
