POSTFLOP · FIELD NOTE
What Is a Capped Range—and When Can You Attack It?
Identify capped ranges from missing strong combinations, then choose value thresholds, overbets, and bluffs without overreading weakness.
Your opponent calls twice, checks the river, and seems unable to have the nuts. That is the idea behind a capped range. But “they look weak” is not enough. You need to trace the action and identify which strong hands are actually missing.
The short answer
Attack when earlier actions removed most of your opponent's best hands and your own line still contains strong value. Use a large bet only if you can name the value hands you represent and the weaker hands you expect to fold.
Three useful words
A capped range is missing the strongest part of the possible hands. An uncapped range can still contain the nuts. A range cap comes from the action—for example, when many strong hands would have raised earlier.
Practice this spot first
Decide whether the big blind is truly capped in the river spot below. Name one strong hand they can still have before you reach for the overbet.
Trace the missing value backward
Start with the river nuts and ask how often each combination takes the observed line. Would sets check-raise the flop? Would two pair raise the turn? Could trips arrive through the preflop range? Remove only hands strongly filtered by earlier actions.
A range is rarely capped at exactly one hand strength. Think in densities: fewer nut combinations, more bluff-catchers.
Confirm your own nut advantage
An opponent’s weakness does not create your value. To overbet, your range needs hands strong enough to use the size and bluffs that benefit from the pressure. If both ranges are capped, a huge bet may represent nothing credible.
Choose the value threshold
Against a capped range, hands that are normally medium strength can become value bets. Larger sizes force bluff-catchers to defend at uncomfortable frequencies. The exact threshold depends on what worse hands call and whether the opponent retains traps.
Select bluffs that unblock folds
Prefer hands that remove the opponent’s strongest calls or leave their missed draws and weak pairs available. Ace-five above blocks some ace-high folds, which may be undesirable; compare it with lower missed hands before betting.
Population reads matter. If an opponent slow-plays too often, the apparent cap is weaker. If they always raise value early, pressure becomes safer.
Rule of thumb: A capped range is evidence about missing combinations—not permission to overbet every time someone checks.
Test the cap with counterexamples
For every hand you remove, find the strongest reason it might still take the passive line. Slow-plays, board changes, and mixed checks keep some traps alive. Then compare an opponent who raises value early with one who protects calls. A useful cap survives those counterexamples and still leaves a meaningful density advantage.
Keep studying
Build the uncapped comparison range with a decision-by-decision range-construction method, see how a missed flop bet can create profitable turn probe opportunities, and convert the river advantage into thin but disciplined value bets.