POKER RANGES: POKER RANGE CHARTS

A poker range chart is a visual representation of these ranges. There are 169 hand combinations in Texas Hold’em, and they can fit nicely on a 13×13 board, with suited hands in the top right, offsuit hands in the bottom left, and pocket pairs running through the top left to bottom right diagonal. When looking at poker ranges, you can highlight each hand you think your opponent will have in their range to visualize it better.

While the poker hand matrix above may make it seem like there’s an equal number of each hand, this is not the case. There are actually six combos of paired hands and 16 combos of unpaired hands, with the unpaired hands comprising of 4 suited hands and 12 unsuited hands. Let’s take AA and AK as an example and break it down.

• Paired Hands: There are six possible combinations of paired hands: A♥A♣, A♥A♦, A♥A♠, A♣A♦, A♣A♠, A♣A♠

• Suited Hands: There are four combinations of suited hands, one for each suit: A♥K♥, A♣K♣, A♦K♦, A♠K♠
• Unsuited Hands: There are twelve combinations of unsuited hands: A♥K♣, A♥K♦, A♥K♠, A♣K♦, A♣K♠, A♦K♠, A♣K♥, A♦K♥, A♠K♥, A♦K♣, A♠K♣, A♠K♦.

HOW TO USE POKER RANGES

Now that we know what a poker range is, how do we use it in-game? The way we use poker ranges is by using them to hand-read. Hand reading is the ability to figure out what hands our opponent likely has based on the betting action. We do this by estimating the ranges our opponents start with and comparing them to their betting patterns to see what hands from our range our opponent is representing.

For example, if our opponent 3bet preflop, bet the flop, turn and river on an A♦9♣6♠4♠2♦ board, they represent hands like AA, AK, AQ, and AJ for value and could have hands like KQ, QJ, and 87s as bluffs”

It’s vital that we keep our opponent’s range consistent as we go through the hand. A common trap people fall into is to suddenly assume a player can have a specific hand in their range on the turn when they had already removed it on a previous street. Let’s look at an example:

Your opponent raises UTG at a nine-handed table, and you call with 3♦4♦ in the big blind. You think your opponent is a solid player, so you give him a range of 77+, AQo+, AJs+, and JTs+. The flop comes 3♠4♠5♦. You check, your opponent bets, you raise, and your opponent shoves.

You might be worried that your opponent has a straight with either 76 or A2, a better two pair with 53 or 54, or a set with 33, 44, or 55, but you shouldn’t be. Why? Because those hands weren’t in our opponent’s estimated preflop range, so they won’t be in their post-flop range!

When using poker ranges, start with your opponent’s estimated preflop range; as your opponent gives you more information via their actions, you can remove more and more hands until you have a clearer view of their range.

HOW TO CALCULATE POKER RANGES

The hardest part about using poker ranges is accurately estimating what ranges your opponents are playing. We’ll never truly get inside the minds of our opponents and understand how they think, but we can use the information to create a close estimate of the hands they’ll play. Here’s what you should consider when building a range for your opponent:

Being able to put your opponent on an accurate range of hands is one of the most important skills you can have as a poker player. Thinking in terms of ranges allows you to make the best possible decision against all the possible hands your opponent can have in any scenario.

However, it’s tough to be able to think through all the possible permutations while you’re playing, and it’s even hard for your estimates to be right all the time!

This is why learning this concept inside out and practicing it whenever you play is vital to improving and becoming a winning poker player. We’ll be guiding you through the process of figuring out your opponent’s range street by street, so you can play as accurately as possible from the first betting round to the last.

PREFLOP Poker RANGE

A preflop range chart is a visual representation of a range of hands that a player will play from a specific preflop position. It’s a way of visualizing a range and better understanding it, rather than reading the poker notation and trying to memorize it that way. The more you familiarize yourself with these charts, the easier it becomes to picture them when playing

Let’s have a look at some you might be familiar with, starting with a nine-handed UTG raising range:

As you can see, there aren’t many hands being played; all the focus is around the top left-hand side of the chart. When looking at these charts, remember that the best hands are in the top left and the worst hands are in the bottom right. Let’s look at a wider range to see how they compare, this time a BTN opening range:

That’s a lot of hands to try and keep track of when you’re in-game! If you’re having trouble remembering them all, try grouping certain hands that all play roughly the same, like all Qx, all Kx, all Jx, etc.

PREFLOP: COMMON RAISE RANGES

• 9% = 66+, AJs, KQs, AJo+, KQo

As you can see, it’s a pretty complicated process and takes a lot of practice before you’re able to use it at the tables! However, if you can become good at it, it will give you a huge advantage over your opponents.

USING POKER RANGES TO EXPLOIT AND COUNTER OPPONENTS

Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of how you construct poker ranges for yourself and your opponent and calculate your equity vs. those ranges, how can you use that to your advantage in-game? By calculating your opponent’s range accurately, you’re better able to use concepts such as minimum defense frequency and big blind defense, and you’ll be better able to exploit your opponent based on their tendencies. Let’s take a closer look at how each one works in practice.

MINIMUM DEFENSE FREQUENCY

Your minimum defense frequency in any situation is the percentage of your range that you must continue with when facing a bet to remain unexploitable by bluffs. If you fail to meet the minimum defense frequency, your opponent will automatically profit with their bluffs as you’re folding too often.

Working out the minimum defense frequency in any situation is easy; here’s the equation.

(Pot size  / (pot size + bet size)) x 100 = MDF

After inputting the appropriate numbers, the result will be the percentage of hands that you must continue with to remain unexploitable.

While the minimum defense frequency can be applied to any situation, this concept is a lot more specific and covers the number of hands you should defend against a raise from your opponent. Another difference between big blind defense and minimum defense frequency is that it’s often used in-game rather than as a mental exercise. This is because your big blind defense is based on the range of hands your opponent plays preflop and isn’t conditional on your opponent being balanced.

There is a list of considerations that you should run through before defending a hand in the big blind, so let’s look at what those are.

• Opponent’s Range – The first thing to consider when working out your big blind defense frequency is the range of hands your opponent has raised. To figure this out, you need to consider their position, raise size, stack size, and playing style.

• Hand vs. Range Equity – Once you’ve worked out your opponent’s range, you need to work out roughly how much equity your hand has against that range.

• Pot Odds – The next thing to look at is the pot odds being offered by your opponent. Based on the amount of equity your hand has against your opponent’s range, do you have a profitable call? If yes, you can defend; if no, then you should fold.

Sounds easy, right? Well, there’s a little bit more to it than that.

While it’s tempting to look at the pure equity your hand has against your opponent’s range and leave it at that, there are a couple of other things you should consider that will determine how profitable your hand is.

• Position – Playing in the big blind means that you’re likely going to be out of position in the pot. Being out of position makes it harder to realize your equity, so even if you have 30% equity against your opponent’s range, it’s unlikely that you’ll get to realize all of it.

• “Flopability” – How often your hand will likely connect with the flop also affects the amount of equity you’ll be able to realize. Hands like suited connectors flop flush draws, straight draws, and pairs, making it easier to continue against a bet. However, unsuited, disconnected hands are going to flop nothing most of the time, making it much harder to defend against a flop bet.

• Rake – If you’re playing in a cash game, the rake is going to have an impact on the profitability of your hand. If your defend is only slightly over breakeven, then by the time the rake is taken, it will become unprofitable.

These factors mean that just because your hand has the raw equity against your opponent’s range to call, it doesn’t mean that the call will be profitable. A good rule of thumb is to add around 5% equity to the amount you need to call to account for this. For example, if you need 35% equity to call against your opponent’s range, only continue with hands that have 40% equity or more.

One of the best ways to use ranges to increase your win rate is to adjust your play based on the tendencies of your opponent. If you’ve played with an opponent long enough, you’ll start to pick up clues about how they play, which you can use to your advantage.

For example, if you’ve noticed that your opponent is extremely tight preflop, you can counter that by overfolding against them preflop. Similarly, if you’re against an opponent who’s bluffing far more frequently than they should, you can exploit them by calling down more often.

Any time your opponent deviates from balanced play, you can adjust your play to exploit them. There are lots of ways your opponent could be unbalanced; take a look at these examples and watch out for them the next time you play.

• Is your opponent too tight or too loose preflop?
• Do they always have it when they bet the river?
• Do they c-bet too often/too little?
• Do the 3bet too often/too little?
• Do they call too often from the big blind?
• How do they react to overbets? Do they call too often or too little?
• Do they play straightforwardly when out of position?
• Do they check raise enough?

Players in lower-stakes games are likely going to be unbalanced in many of these spots, so it’s up to you to be an observant poker player and notice which way they lean.

While you’ll never know for sure exactly how your opponent constructs their ranges, one way you can get an insight into their preflop ranges is by using a HUD. A HUD (heads-up display) tracks the stats for every opponent on the table and displays them in an overlay. You can configure your HUD to show you any stats you wish.

Two of the stats that are on almost every HUD are the VPIP and PFR stats. These show you how many hands your opponent voluntarily plays preflop and how many they raise. Just by looking at the VPIP and PFR stats, you can get a good idea of whether or not your opponent is on the looser or tighter side. Not only does this tell you how they play preflop, but it also gives you a window into their postflop play; not many people play extremely tight preflop and then extremely loose postflop, or vice versa.

While VPIP and PFR are great for getting a general feel for how your opponent plays, you can go even more granular when looking at their preflop ranges. You can get a breakdown of the RFI (raise first in) stats for each position at the table, which tells you the exact percentage of hands your opponent plays when it folds to them in each position. This is as close to knowing their preflop range as you’re going to get, as it gives you an actual percentage of hands you can work from.

However, just because two players have an RFI stat of 15 for their UTG opening range, it doesn’t mean they’ll play the exact same range. Some players may play more suited hands, some more Ax, and some more pocket pairs, so remember this when trying to evaluate your opponent’s range later in the hand.