Explanation of Polarised
Polariseddescribes a range of hands split into two distinct groups, value hands and bluff hands. Polarisedranges generally occur in spots where a player is playing aggressively. It often doesn’t make sense to play aggressively with mid-strength holdings. The aggressive player is hence left with a selection of strong value hands and a selection of bluffs.
For example, imagine a KT522 board in Hold’em. We bet all holdings stronger than AK for value. We bluff all our busted straight-draws. This strategy is a polarised range. We don’t bet mid-strength holdings like T9 or 77, since these make more sense as checks.
Example of Polarised used in a sentence -> When Villain over-bets the river, it’s reasonable to assume that he is showing up with a heavily polarisedrange.
Polarisation Poker Strategy
The concept of range polarisation is most relevant to river scenarios. Many poker researchers have attempted to apply the concept of polarisation to earlier situations (such as preflop). These models are often overly theoretical and lack solid real-world application. There isn’t enough of a distinction between what constitutes a value hand and what constitutes a bluff on the earlier streets. Value hands can always be out-drawn, and bluffs can still suck out.
Polarisation models work very well in river situations because a hand either has 100% equity or 0% equity.(Aside from a few rare cases where the hand chops.)The key takeaway for the average player is not to use large bet sizings for mid-strength hands on the river. Large bet sizings should be reserved for strong value hands or total air. For everything in the middle, you should either use a smaller bet-sizing or check.
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