Explanation of Represent
Deciding what our opponent “represents” is somewhat similar to the concept of putting him on a range. The term “represent” is especially used to describe the made hands in villain’s range however. Hence, we might use the phrase “villain is representing that he has connected with the river card’, but it’s less likely use the phrase “villain is representing a bluff”. Having said that the phrase “villain doesn’t represent anything” is in common usage to describe a line that doesn’t make too much sense with any legitimate value holding.
The term “represent” is commonly abbreviated by poker players as “rep”. “Villain reps nothing with his line”.
Example of Represent used in a sentence -> Big bets typically represent strong hands while smaller bets represent weaker or mid-strength made hands.
How to Use Represent as Part of Your Poker Strategy
As a quick example big bets on the river usually represent a polarized range. This means our opponent is frequently representing two-pair or better. A smaller bet might instead represent a weak top-pair or second-pair looking to extract thin value.
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