Capped Range

What is Capped Range?

A capped range is missing the strongest hands. If you called instead of raising preflop, your opponent knows you probably don't have AA, KK.

Your range is 'capped' — it has a ceiling.

Why it matters

Capped ranges are vulnerable to large bets and overbets. When your range is capped, you cannot credibly represent the nuts, which means your opponent can bet very large knowing you lack the strongest hands to call or re-raise with.

To protect against exploitation of capped ranges, players should sometimes slow-play strong hands to maintain an uncapped range.

Where it shows up

Capped Range

A range missing its strongest hands is exploitable by large bets and overbets.

Bluff Catcher

A hand that only beats a bluff — calling decisions governed by MDF.

Overbet Spot

Betting >100% pot — requires nut advantage and polarized range.

Nuance and caveats

Capping occurs when certain action sequences logically exclude the strongest hands from a player's range. After calling a 3-bet out of position (when 4-betting would be standard with AA/KK), the caller's range is weakly capped.

On specific board textures, ranges become capped: calling a BTN open as BB on an AKQ board leaves BB without AA, KK, QQ, AK (would have 3-bet preflop and now holds those cards as well). The solver counters capping by including slowplayed hands and strong draws in the capped range's checking ranges.

Key takeaway

Missing strongest hands — vulnerable to large bets.