My standard 1/2 and 1/3 preflop ranges, a 4-part series: Part 3, The Button

For all of you that found this page without reading the initial post of the series, I highly reccommend checking it out. It outlines the value of having a sense for 'default ranges' for preflop spots in live poker, as well as my default ranges when UTG. You can find the second post on MP ranges here. As you can see from the images, I open the button very wide. If you ever find yourself in a game against me or anyone who seems to be opening wide from late position, 3-bet them relentlessly from the blinds! Because it's correct to have a very wide exploitable raise size from late position in most live low stakes lineups, the decent/good player's range will be too weak there to really fight back even if they're aware of what you're doing

For my over-limping range, I decided to color only a few of hand combos green. That is because depending on the table dynamics, I will often never have an over-limping range. So every hand that goes into the over-limp range is already a 'sometimes' play, where the green combos here represent something closer to 20, 25% versus the 50% of the opening ranges. So green hands near the top of range sometimes become and open and those near the bottom of my range sometimes become a fold.

For my flat-calling range, let's assume this is against a somewhat loose but not crazy player from early position and that everyone folds to us. That rarely happens at the low stakes but my flatting range will seriously change depending on the amount of callers and types of players they are. Most of the green squares here indicate that the hand is sometimes a 3-bet, only with hands near the bottom of my range sometimes being a fold.

For the photos below, yellow means all combos of the hand, green means about half of the combos of that hand, and blue/white means not in the range. Disregard the one orange box. Button 3-Bet Range

Button Opening Range

Button Flatting Range

Button Over-Limping Range

What do you think of these ranges, is there anything you might do differently? Join the conversation in the comment section below or by email, we would love to hear your thoughts!

For the final installment of the series looking at my ranges in the blinds, click here.