How Do You Approach Preflop Range Construction? Power Equilab Tutorial

Today MTT Poker School's Head Coach and Founder Gareth 'Gazellig' James discusses a question he gets quite a lot:
"How do you approach preflop range construction?"
Gareth breaks down preflop range construction into:
- The hands we want to 3-bet for value
- The hands we want to call
- The hands we want to 3-bet as a bluff
He uses Power-Equilab to show you the technique he uses for choosing the different hands and putting them into the different categories.
2018 poker tips for tournament poker - preflop range construction using Power Equilab.
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Gareth James set up MTT Poker School at the end of 2016 and has gone on to work with winners of the Sunday Million on PokerStars (Jens Gellrich), final tablists of the Super High Roller Bowl SHRB (Matt Berkey, Solve For Why) and many more up and coming tournaments players.

[@petrcernicek7552]

Great video and great explanation, nice work, keep it up

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you!

[@Spadenace]

Very nice video, thanks James!!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're welcome, thanks for your comment!

[@naeco5778]

nice content man, you deserve more subs

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you! Appreciate it man!

[@_rogermoraes]

Tks for the vídeo, help me a lot!!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're welcome!

[@christhesinner]

Thank you very much :)

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're welcome!

[@MrCuantou]

Hey man, loving the content, keep it up ! :D

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you! Have you joined our Facebook group yet? facebook.com/groups/mttpokerschoolclassroom

[@MrCuantou]

MTT Poker School i did recently :p

[@sammymunoz2991]

🔥

[@playgames7515]

Hi Gareth - what are the essential poker tools that you would recommend for someone who has been playing for a couple of years, at least one MTT a week? I am getting more serious with my game now and don’t mind starting to invest in these types of tools.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

I recommend Equilab and Holdem Resources Calculator as essential tools and I would probably buy my book, 'Purposeful Practice for Poker' too if you're looking to get more serious with your game. Then look at PIOSolver and MonkerSolver much further down the line.

[@nutterbutters2232]

From such early position this makes sense, but you cant always flat Jacks. You should mention position in the video and how it’s relevant to your range

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah that's a good suggestion, cheers! This video is focused on this exact formation, but for sure the range construction is going to change in different positions.

[@nutterbutters2232]

MTT Poker School just a question, how were you able to colour coat the matrix for the hand ranges?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

@@nutterbutters2232 You have to use Power-Equilab. Open the hand range selection screen and then click the Grouping options tab that brings up the different colours.

[@PhatStax]

Wow, so you'll just fold 9Ts 89s J9s etc?
I would always call in these spots.
Would you call the above hands on the cutoff or BTN?

[@PhatStax]

Sorry, continued video and seen against a weaker player we can call

[@PhatStax]

How do we know it's a good player opening with less than 20 hands info on them in a MTT? Should we always presume it's a good player or bad player?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

@@PhatStax you can always look a player up on Sharkscope or similar to see if they've had consistent results. This video is over two years old now, which might mean it's time for an update.

[@Elscorch076]

Great stuff! When you are constructing these ranges, do you try to balance the amount of combos in each category? For example, 24 combos of 3 bets for value, 24 combos of cold calling, and 24 combos of 3 bet bluffs?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

The ones to try to balance are your 3-bet ranges, but even then we should probably look to have more 3-bets for value than as a bluff. Like a lot of things in poker, it depends on a lot of factors, but there are times when we can actually have more 3-bet bluffs if we're polarised and know that our opponent will 4-bet jam or fold. The main crux of this video is to get you thinking in terms of the three ranges, which should make it easier to know what to do versus a 4-bet, i.e. fold your 3-bet bluffs and continue with your 3-bets for value, rather than making the 3-bet and then not knowing what to do versus a 4-bet.

[@KamratKamala]

You did not cover balance of 3bet range.

[@derwahrheit3617]

Y