What’s a ‘polarized range’?

A ‘polarized range’ is a term that’s used more and more often on various poker forums. You’ll see it referred to in a sentence like “I will call with my ace high because he (the opponent) will have a polarized range in this situation’. In this article, we’ll explain what a polarized range actually is.

First, here is the definition of a polarized range: A player is holding a polarized range hand when his finishing hand is either total crap or is super strong.

In other words, it’s never a mediocre hand. You will often come across a polarized range on the river. A great example would be a board of 4 Flush cards on the river and the opponent puts in an overbet of 200 on a 140 pot. Basically, a player would only pull a stunt like this (especially when playing at the higher limits) if he’s holding a high ace flush or nothing at all. It would be crazy to put up a bet like that while holding a Jack high flush; the risk would be too great. In cases like these, your opponent wants you to believe that he is indeed holding that high flush.

This will require you to know how to respond when your opponent is holding a polarized range. A King high flush in a situation like this is worth just as much as a top pair; is he holding the hand or is it nothing at all?

Overbetting on a polarized range is something that we also often see in the pre-flop 3 bets. Most players participating in a 3 bet are either playing absolute top hands or total crap, as a bluff. The reasoning behind this strategy is that most players don’t want to loose the value of their hand. Imagine knowing that your opponent only makes 4 bets when holding a perfect hand and he mucks all of the other hands. In this case, you won’t want to 3 bet your pocket 10’s. It is, after all, a strong hand but when played as a 4 bet, it will have to be mucked. This would loose you a great hand that would have held up against the opening range of your opponent.

What is it that we can do with this knowledge? It’s always very important to assess the type of player that you‘re facing and judge whether he is holding a polarized range. In the event that your opponent is a rookie, chances are that he will make that overbet of 200 holding a Jack high flush, just because he has no idea what he is doing.

Playing better opponents and knowing the basics of the polarized range strategy gives you the advantage of confusion. When your opponent has very good reason to believe that you are holding a very strong or a weak hand, you can put in a great overbet with a mediocre hand to force a call on an ace high.
Assessing your opponent is one of the most important skills in poker and using your new knowledge about the polarized range can bring you greater success!

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