You often hear poker pros and commentators talk about putting opponents on a 'range' of hands rather than a particular hand in no-limit hold'em. In fact, sometimes we'll hear them discussing hand ranges even when we have the benefit of knowing players’ actual hands!
How to think about Hand Ranges; Advanced Concepts in No-Limit Hold'em Video Pack; Moorman's Book of Poker Video; Mastering Pot-Limit Omaha, Video Pack; The Myth of Poker Talent video series. Strategies to Beat Small Stakes Pot-Limit Omaha Video Pack; Will Tipton’s Solving Poker With IPython And Fictitious Play; Expert Heads Up No-Limit Hold.
For example, during coverage of the four-day $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl last week, Nick Schulman offered many hours' worth of insightful discussion on hundreds of NLHE hands. In most of those analyses, you could hear Schulman outlining the possible ranges of hands players held even though we could see their exact hole cards.
Why? Because by talking about ranges instead of specific hands, Schulman could better describe the thinking of each player regarding an opponent's possible holdings and thus better address how that player might choose to proceed. It's a much more meaningful way to talk about strategy than just reacting to results — and it's a good habit to develop when playing, too.
The First Step: Know Your Opponents
Range-based thinking often starts with understanding an opponent's style and tendencies as demonstrated over the course of previous hands you've observed from that player. Sometimes we don't know the first thing about a new opponent, but very often we have at least some idea about how a player plays, even after only a few hands.
The most often-used categories for such profiling are 'loose' and 'tight' (referring to frequency of hands played) and 'aggressive' and 'passive' (referring to how players play those hands). These two sets of contrasts produce four player types:
- tight-passive — plays fewer hands, mostly checking and calling
- tight-aggressive — plays fewer hands, mostly betting and raising
- loose-aggressive — plays lots of hands, mostly betting and raising
- loose-passive — plays lots of hands, mostly checking and calling
There are subcategories and variations within each of these four (e.g., some tight-aggressive players play more hands than others; some loose-aggressive players bet and raise less frequently than others) and some overlapping and blending of them, too.
But they nonetheless remain a helpful first step toward range-based thinking once you get involved against a player whom you've been watching.
Identifying Hand Ranges
Say you've pegged a particular opponent as tight-passive or a 'rock.' He's rarely voluntarily put any money in the pot, folding most hands and only showing down ace-king once in several orbits. That alone should help you narrow his range should you get involved in a hand against him going forward.
A hand arises in which this player opens with a raise from early position, and after looking down at you call from the button. The blinds step aside, the flop comes , and he leads with a two-thirds pot bet.
Identifying hand ranges generally involves gathering and applying three types of evidence — your opponent's profile (as you've determined it prior to the hand), betting action, and board texture. Here you have a tight-aggressive player making an early-position raise (unusual for him) followed by a healthy-sized continuation bet on a somewhat dry board.
That's plenty of information to reduce his range of possible holdings considerably. All of this adds up to strength and a very narrow range, one that likely includes only certain 'made hands' (i.e., big pocket pairs or , really), most of which probably are ahead of your eights.
Profiling, Betting Action, and Board Texture
Now let's make your opponent a smart, tight-aggressive player and move him to the cutoff seat (with you still on the button), then keep everything else the same with him also c-betting that flop. The TAG player's range now widens to include hands like , , and to go with , some middle pocket pairs to go along with the premium ones, and perhaps even a few suited connectors (including a couple of hands).
With such a player, your pocket eights may well be ahead of a lot of his possible holdings and so you call the flop bet. Then after the turn comes a seeming blank — the — he checks.
The combination of profiling, betting action, and board texture is helping you narrow his range even further. You consider his line as articulated on all three streets (preflop raise, flop bet, turn check), and remove his pocket pairs and other made hands, leaving him with , , , and perhaps -suited, -suited, -suited.
You bet half the pot, and he calls. Now what? From that narrow range hands like , , , , and might become a little more likely. Meanwhile the other non-suited hands and are less so.
Narrow Ranges, Don't Widen Them
You might be tempted to put back into his range certain hands, too, although more often than not such second-guessing is inspired more by your own hand strength than by a clear-headed read of your opponent's actions and what they are saying about his possible range of hands.
Think about it — you'd already determined this particular player would bet that board with or other made hands rather than check-call. Don't at this point start talking yourself into worst-case scenarios.
This is probably where most newer players have the most trouble with postflop play. As a hand proceeds from street to street, ranges should be narrowing as each new piece of information — each new community card, each new action — reveals itself. Newer players with less experience with range-based thinking will instead sometimes arbitrarily widen their opponent's ranges as new board cards (especially ones that seem bad for their own hands) make them forget about an opponent's earlier actions.
For example — say after your opponent check-calls your turn bet, the river brings the and he checks. Is he more or less likely to have an hand now? Or has anything changed, really?
Hold'em
Before that river card fell, you'd already eliminated all but a very few, specific combos from this tight-aggressive opponent's range — , , and , to be exact. His checking an ace here really shouldn't change much. He is aggressive and so might bet after pairing an ace. But he's also smart and might check-call here with an ace, too.
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Against such a player, checking behind with your eights is probably a recommended play given that he probably wouldn't be calling a bet without an ace (or something better than your eights).
Final Thoughts
Sometimes even good players miss something early on in a hand — or make a mistake when profiling a player — that gives them legitimate reason to revise their thinking on the turn or river and perhaps alter (or widen) the range of hands on which they've put an opponent. Sometimes also players will take weird lines — an unorthodox slow play, a surprise river check-raise bluff — that don't really 'add up' but can make range-reading much more complicated.
More often than not, however, thinking in terms of an opponent's possible range of holdings gives you a much clearer idea of the meaning of each action throughout a hand.
Watch your opponents and use their actions to help you categorize their styles and tendencies. Use that knowledge to 'narrow' them to a profile, then when in a hand against them, use that profile, their actions, and the board to narrow their ranges, helping you to find the most profitable way to play against them.
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NL Hold’em Starting Hand Charts
One aspect of the game of No-Limit Hold’em that causes beginning players much grief is deciding which hands to play and which hands to dump. NL Hold’em is much more difficult than Limit Hold’em because the value of a hand depends on so many factors other than just the cards in your hand. Despite this difficulty, our coaches believe that following some general guidelines and adjusting from these is a better solution than having no guidelines at all. Given that well over half of your profitability in NL Hold’em is based on hand selection alone, we have developed these charts to help you better determine whether to play or fold.
There are no perfect No-Limit starting hand charts. That is because there are many factors that affect your decision, and charts cannot account for all of them. Some of these include:
- The size of your opponent's stacks.
- How loose or tight, passive or aggressive, your opponents are.
- Where these opponents are located at the table – for example, does an aggressive player still have to act after you?
- Your image at the table – for example, how tight or tricky you are perceived.
That being said, these charts will serve you well in most typical low-stakes No-Limit cash games, such as games with blinds of $1/$2, and home games. These games typically have several loose players at the table, and good opportunities for winning big pots with suited connectors (hands such as 87s) and pocket pairs. With practice, you will be able to be a consistently winning player with these charts as a starting point. As you improve, you'll find yourself making adjustments to these charts based on the factors listed above, and more.
Never use a Limit Hold’em hand chart in a No-Limit Hold’em game. Some hands, like the previously mentioned suited connectors and pocket pairs, go way up in value in No-Limit, and can be played from almost any position in loose, passive games. That is because in Limit Hold’em you might win a decent pot with these hands, but in No-Limit Hold’em you are aiming to win someone's entire stack. Other hands, such as AJ, which might be playable in a Limit game, are much less playable in No-Limit (see additional notes about AJ below the hand charts).
Note: It would be a serious mistake to apply these hand charts before reading the Frequent Asked Questions first.
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CHART #1 ‐ LOOSE, PASSIVE GAME
- Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
- Call always
- Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
CHART #2 ‐ TIGHT OR AGGRESSIVE GAME
NO ONE HAS RAISED YET
- Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise raise
- Call (or Raise) from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
CHART #3 ‐ THERE HAS BEEN A SINGLE RAISE
(3‐5 TIMES THE BIG BLIND) BEFORE YOU
- Re‐Raise Always
- Call from Early Position, otherwise re‐raise
- Call always
- Call from Middle or Late Position if the conditions are right (see Frequently Asked Questions)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
For the hands in yellow, what do you mean when you say to play these hands if the conditions are right? The hands in yellow are speculative hands. They should always be folded from Early Position. From other positions, they can be profitable given the right conditions. Some of the questions to ask yourself:
- Are there other players who have called so far (the more, the better)?
- Are the players who have called playing poorly after the flop? Will they pay me off if I hit something?
- Is there an aggressive player still to act behind me (you might get raised and have to fold)?
- If there has been a raise and no other callers, what chance do I have of using my position after the flop to win the hand even if I don't improve (Chart #3 only)?
Why does Chart #2 say to sometimes raise with the hands in yellow, but Chart #1 does not? We have different goals in mind. Using Chart #1, we want to call to encourage additional players to enter the pot. These hands will be immensely profitable when our loose, passive opponents enter the hand, and get trapped when we flop a set, or make a well-disguised straight. When using Chart #2, however, we want to size up the opponents still to act. If they are tight, we can raise. Sometimes, we'll pick up the blinds. Other times, our pre-flop aggression will allow us to take down the pot on the flop.
What's the difference between AKs and AKo? AKs means an Ace and King of the same suit. AKo means an Ace and King of different suits.
What are early, middle, and late position? Early Position is generally the first 2 (in a nine player game) or 3 (in a ten player game) positions after the blinds. Late Position is the “cutoff” position (to the right of the dealer), and dealer button positions. Middle Position is everything in between.
How much should I raise? As a general rule, raise 3 to 4 times the big blind, plus 1 extra big blind for every player who has called before you. So if there are 2 callers already, raise between 5 and 6 times the big blind.
What if someone raises after I call? Whether you call the raise depends on how much money the raiser has for you to win, how many other players are involved, and what type of hand you have. As a general rule, if you have a pocket pair, lean towards calling. If there are a lot of other players (and therefore a big pot), lean towards calling. In general, fold suited connectors from early position. Fold hands like KQ that don't play well against a raiser.
How do I play from the blinds? From the small blind, play the same hands you would play from late position, plus a few more. But don't call with junk hands like T5o, just because it is “cheap”. From the big blind, if there is a raise to you, play like you would if you had already called from early position.
The chart says to fold KQo to a raise. Really? Yes, this hand performs very poorly against typical raising hands. Against AK, AQ, AA, KK, QQ, you are a big underdog. Other typical raising hands like JJ, TT, 99, AJs, are slightly ahead of you as well. The only time you might call or re-raise is from late position, if the opener was in middle or late position, indicating they might have a wider range of hands.
I was told to fold AJo from Early Position, why do you say to call with it? Folding AJo is not a bad idea in many games. We included it because, at low stakes tables (even tight or aggressive ones), the players are often playing badly enough after the flop that it can be profitable. We used data from millions of hands of low-limit poker to analyze this. The same could be said for KQo, ATs, and KJs – you can make a small profit in the long run at most low-stakes games, but folding would be perfectly acceptable from early position.
Can I use these charts in a NL Hold'em tournament? The charts would be best applicable to the early stages of a NL tournament, when everyone has a deep stack. In the middle and later stages, they should not be used.