Do you want to select the bluffing range they have or what they "should" have. They are very different. Its always hard to assign ranges because you have to make assumptions about players and those assumptions may not always be right, so you have to try and go with some sort of default.

I think Matt Janda's Applications of No limit holdem give some guidelines of what Value to bluff ratios should be. I highly doubt those at 5nl are employing these strategies though. So usually best to just look at the range and select all the obvious hands that people would bluff with on flop etc. A lot of it has to do with looking at what you want to arrive at the river with and having the correct ratio on the river to make bluffcatchers indifferent and then working backwards to the flop based on the bet sizes you are choosing at each street. Its kind of complicated. I used to have the ebook but can't find it right now.

I think that is why you hear in vids, coaches say things like, they have no natural bluffs here. Thats because the bluffs they used they were BDSD, BDFD, SDs FDs etc on flop and turn are now made hands by turn or river and people at low stakes tend not to turn even the worst made hands, like bottom pair or middle pair, into bluffs even though they should be.

Thanks for your reply fawlty..

I have no problems regarding the theoretical part. I am heavy on a webinar by Splitsuit regarding this and he is giving the default-range for every 2 value-hands I should have 1 bluff hand on the river. This derives from Janda's book.

I really struggle to assign villan a bluffing range that he realistically could have at NL5. Is there anything on handreading and bluffcatching that i could dive into?

That is the challenge. We would both like to know what someone at 5nl would REALISTICALLY have. I think your average tight solid reg will just have far less than that.

I just think about when I used to play 5nl before I had any of this coaching or real knowledge about ranges and blockers and combos. I never tripled as a bluff. So I realistically could have zero bluffs on the river in a lot of spots. I think there are tons of 5nl players that are like that. I think the old adage that if they are either: raising turn, triple barreling, or raising river - you have to seriously think about folding all of your bluffcatcher, cuz they probably just aren't bluffing enough to make the bluff catch profitable in the long run.

However, there will be some solid players that will have a decent amount of bluffs and of course you will have your maniacs.

I can't think of anything in specific about hand reading or bluff catching to read/watch, but I would recommend doing some barrelling ranges, much like you would do calldowns, but for when you are the aggressor and look at what you would barrel off with. One of the main factors in choosing hands on the river to bluff with is their blocking effects. Do they block the value combos that villain would call/raise with and do they not block the combos that villain would be clearly folding, like busted draws weaker pairs etc. or even better do they do both at the same time.

I think a simple example of that is that a fair amount of players might like to take a busted flush draw and triple barrel bluff the river, but a busted FD is not a great hand to select to bluff the river with. If you think about the 2 barrel calling ranges, a good portion of the range is going to have FDs in it. So if you are triple barrel bluffing the river you would prefer not to have combos of the FD in your hand as that removes them from villains hand making it less likely they have a busted FD and will fold the river. I mean sometimes maybe its all you have, but its less than ideal.

So this kind of shows that you don't always have the blockers you need and you just have to go with what you got. I would imagine most 5nl grinders just do it like that, just pick whatever and roll with it. Don't consider the EV of checkdown, like if the hand has some SDV or not, nor do they consider blockers.