📝 Last updated: 11 September, 2024.
What are poker hand ranges, and how do professional players use them in decision-making? I’ll guide you through the poker range concept and explain everything in simple words.
A poker range is a set of hands a player can possibly have in a specific game situation.
This example shows a standard Button opening range. With hands highlighted in color, the player enters the game with an open raise, while non-highlighted hands are folded. Let's figure out all the details here.
To visualize ranges we use the preflop matrix that contains all possible combinations of pocket cards that can be dealt to you. We can highlight the 3 main sections here: Suited hands (both cards have the same suit), Off-suited hands, and Pocket pairs.
Each cell represents all kinds of combinations of a hand written in it. For example, AKs means all possible variations of suited Ace-King hand, which are: A♡K♡, A♢K♢, A♧K♧, A♤K♤
Note that there are only 4 possible combinations of AKs hand, whereas it’s 12 for unsuited one (AKo). Every pocket pair has 6 possible combinations, for example: J♡J♢, J♡J♧, J♡J♤, J♢J♧, J♢J♤, J♧J♤.
These numbers allow us to calculate the total number of possible preflop combinations in poker (1326), and also calculate the number of combinations in our range. In our example we have 546 combos out of 1326 that we’ll play, so it means that the typical Button Open Raise range contains 41% of total starting hands.
Suited hands are usually much more playable, and in most cases, ranges are shifted more toward the suited part of the matrix. Our Button open raise range is no exception - you can see that we raise much more suited hands while folding the same type of hands but off-suited.
Every range can be also presented as a string. The main purposes of this format are:
To consider a real example, let’s get back to our Button Open Raise range. In a string format it’ll look like this:
22+, A3o+, K8o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o, A2s+, K2s+, Q3s+, J5s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s
How to read this string:
The other parts of this string are easily readable using similar logic.
Preflop charts are basically the same as poker ranges. Players usually create hand charts for the most frequent game scenarios to structure their preflop play.
The most popular application for managing preflop ranges is Freebetrange. In this app, you can create your own ranges or explore ready-made preflop strategies from famous players or schools.
When professional players have to make a decision, they’re not trying to “guess” the other player’s cards. They’re thinking of the entire range of hands the opponent might have in this spot and trying to estimate the average profitability of actions against this range. This approach allows professional players to be winners on a long distance.
We can highlight three general levels of poker thinking:
The better you understand ranges, the higher you move in your poker thinking and the closer you are to becoming a pro.
Now let's see a few examples of ranges that professional players use in different game scenarios. Note that ranges are vary a lot depending on many factors, including:
As you see that there are a lot of parameters you should take into account to build a right range for the spot. For example, ranges on UTG and HJ positions will be drastically different. Same for the actions before you - if there was already an open raise and 3bet before you, you should play a really tight range, whereas if somebody just limped, it's really worth it to play much wider range.
Let's look at three real examples.
This chart shows how you should enter the game from an early position in a classic 6 max Texas Holdem Cash game. Note that there is no limping, you should either raise or fold. In this position you can consider even tighter range, depending on a table structure. There are too many people in front of you, so it's not a good spot to enter the game often.
Again, you're in early position (UTG), but now after your open raise, someone from the blinds made a 3bet against you. How should you react? Well, you have three options to choose from: Fold, Call or Re-Raise (4Bet). The preflop chart below will help you to make these moves with the right frequencies:
Big blind defence is a very important situation in poker. You already invested money in the pot, and your odds to call are much better than in other positions. So you should consider entering the pot much more often.
This poker chart demonstrates how you should defend your big blind against a standard button steal. All these hands have a good equity to continue with.
We've just covered the basics of poker ranges (or preflop charts, as many players call them). Now you have understanding what is “thinking in ranges", and have a few real examples of ranges for the different game spots.
Continue exploring poker ranges with Freebetrange and you’ll quickly accumulate a better understanding of preflop mechanics in general.
