Poker ranges: stop guessing one hand, start counting many
Updated November 2026
A range is the full list of hands a player could have right now. Thinking in ranges means you stop asking "what has he got?" and start asking "what could he have, and how often?"
That one change is the biggest step most players ever make. Nobody can name an opponent's exact two cards, but you can get very good at counting the hands he might hold.
Combos per hand
The shorthand
Combos each seat opens
Why can't I just put him on a hand?
Because you'll be wrong most of the time. Suppose a player raises from the first seat and you decide he has ace-king. In the simplified chart we train, that raise covers 212 different two-card hands. Ace-king is 16 of them.
212 combos, 16 of them ace-king
How a raise narrows things down
Two-card hands left, out of 1,326
So your read was right about 1 time in 13. A range keeps the other 196 hands on the table, and those are the ones that cost you money when you ignore them.
How many ways can a hand be dealt?
This is the only counting you need. A combo is one exact pair of cards, such as the ace of spades with the king of hearts.
Every way to be dealt kings or ace-king
Six for the pair, sixteen for ace-king
Added up, there are 1,326 possible hands, and most of them are offsuit.
What the 1,326 starting hands are made of
Which is why suited hands and pairs feel rare: they are
Why does counting combos change decisions?
Because a hand that looks scary may be rare. If you're facing a big raise and you fear aces or ace-king, there are 6 ways to have aces and 16 ways to have ace-king, so he holds ace-king more than twice as often.
Your own cards change the count too. Hold one ace and there are fewer aces left for him. Players call this a blocker: a card in your hand that stops him from having a hand.
What holding one ace does to his combos
Ace-king and pocket aces, before and after
One ace in your hand cuts his pocket aces in half.
How do you build a range for someone?
Start wide and cut. Each thing he does removes hands from the list.
First, his seat: someone raising from the first seat has a much tighter list than someone raising on the button.
How many hands each seat opens
Combos out of 1,326, in our simplified charts
Second, his action: a call usually means a medium hand, and a big re-raise means strong hands or a bluff.
Third, the board: if he bets a flop full of low cards, ask which of his hands connect with it.
Then keep going on the turn and river. By the end you may be down to a dozen combos, and that's a decision you can actually make.
How do players write ranges down?
Everybody uses the same shorthand, and it takes two minutes to learn. A plus sign means "and everything better".
Can I build one myself?
Yes. Tap squares to add hands, or start from a preset, and watch the count change.
What shapes can a range have?
Good players describe a range by its shape, because the shape tells you how to play against it.
Three shapes
Red squares are in the range
A linear range is the best hands from the top down, as in most opening charts. A polarized range is very strong hands plus bluffs, with little in between, as in most 3-betting ranges.
A condensed range is mostly medium hands, because the strongest ones would have raised. Players who just call usually have one of those.
How does your hand do against a range?
Pick a hand and run it. For each range below we deal random boards and random hands from that range, and count how often you win.
Ace-jack is fine against a wide button range and in real trouble against a tight one, so the same cards are worth very different amounts depending on who raised. If that price question is new to you, read about pot odds next.
How do I read a hand street by street?
Take his range, remove the cards you can see, and sort what's left by how it fits the board. The tool below does it for a button raiser and a big blind caller.
Each bet cuts the list again. A player who bets the flop and fires the turn isn't holding the bottom of those bars very often, unless he's bluffing, and the size of his bets tells you which.
Can you walk me through a whole hand?
How his range shrinks on this flop
Combos left at each step, first seat raiser on K-7-2
He bets the flop. Weak hands sometimes bet here, so nothing is certain yet, but the last bar is the part to be afraid of.
On a blank turn he bets again. Most players give up the hands that missed at this point, so now you're mostly up against top pair or better. If he fires a third time on the river, ask how many bluffs could still be left in there, and compare that with your pot odds.
What do capped and uncapped mean?
A capped range can't hold the very best hands, usually because that player would have raised with them earlier. A player who just calls before the flop rarely has aces.
An uncapped range still has all the monsters in it. Big bets work better from an uncapped range, because the other player can't be sure you're not holding the nuts (the best possible hand).
The same button range, two ways
Capped
Uncapped
Do ranges change with stack size?
Yes. Deep stacks reward hands that can make something huge, like suited connectors and small pairs. Short stacks reward high cards that win without improving, so ranges get tighter and more top-heavy.
What each stack likes
What is range advantage?
Range advantage means one player's range hits a board harder. Look at the bars above: on a king-high flop the button raiser holds far more strong hands, so he can bet often.
On a low, connected flop the big blind's calling range catches up. That's the reason solvers bet some flops almost every time and check others much more.
Same two ranges, two flops
Does it matter who I'm playing?
It changes everything. A tight player's range is short and strong, and a loose player's range is long and full of weak hands. Start from the chart, then widen or narrow it according to what you've seen him show down.
Tight and loose
Tight
Loose
How do I get good at this?
Five minutes a day is enough to start. Take one hand you played, write down his range before the flop, and cut it street by street. Count the combos at the end and see what you were really up against.
Five minutes a day
- Pick one hand you played
- Write his range before the flop
- Cut it street by street
- Count the combos left
Can you count without a table?
Twelve spots in three rounds. Counting combos gets fast within a few minutes.
Questions players ask about ranges
What does a tight or wide range mean?
A tight range has few hands in it, usually strong ones. A wide range has many, including weak ones.
What's the difference between a hand and a combo?
AKs is a hand type. The ace and king of spades is one combo of it. AKs has 4 combos, one per suit.
Is it ever right to put him on one hand?
By the river, sometimes. After three streets of action the list can be short enough that one or two hands make up most of it.
Do I have to do this at the table?
Roughly, yes. You won't count every combo in the moment. Do the exact counting away from the table, and at the table you'll start to recognize the shape.
How do I remember my own ranges?
Start with an opening chart for each seat. The preflop charts page has one you can click through.
How the numbers on this page were worked out
Combos are simple counting: 6 per pair (the 6 ways to choose two of four suits), 4 per suited hand and 12 per offsuit hand. The live test deals 2,000 random boards per range, so results move by about a point between runs. The ranges come from our trainer's simplified charts.
Know someone who always "puts him on ace-king"?
Send them this page, or keep the cheat sheet for your next session.