What Is a Range in Poker?

One of the biggest leaps a poker player can make is shifting from trying to put an opponent on a specific hand to thinking in terms of ranges.

A range is the complete set of hands a player could reasonably hold in a given situation. Instead of guessing “he has ace-king,” you ask “what collection of hands makes sense given his position, stack size, and actions so far?”

What Exactly Is a Poker Range?

In Texas Hold’em, every player starts with one of 1,326 possible two-card combinations. These break down into 169 distinct hand types:

• 13 pocket pairs (6 combinations each)
• 78 suited hands (4 combinations each)
• 78 offsuit hands (12 combinations each)

A range is simply the subset of those combinations that remain plausible after a player has taken certain actions.

When someone raises from under the gun (UTG), their range is far tighter than when the same player raises from the button. The UTG raiser is unlikely to hold weak suited connectors or small offsuit cards because they face five players still to act. The button raiser can profitably open a much wider set of hands because only the blinds remain.

Ranges are not static. Every subsequent action—calls, raises, checks, or folds—narrows the possible holdings.

By the river, a player who raised preflop, bet the flop, and barreled the turn has a much smaller and more defined range than they did at the start of the hand.

Why Thinking in Ranges Is Essential

Recreational players often try to put their opponent on one exact hand. This approach is fragile.

If you decide your opponent has pocket kings and then the board runs out in a way that makes your decision wrong, you have no framework left. Range-based thinking is more robust because it considers the entire distribution of possible hands.

Benefits of range thinking include:

Better equity calculations	You compare your hand (or your range) against the opponent’s full range rather than a single holding.
More accurate hand reading	Actions remove hands from the range rather than forcing you to guess one specific combination.
Improved bluffing and value betting	You choose bet sizes and frequencies that work against the whole range.
Stronger preflop decisions	Opening, 3-betting, and defending ranges are constructed in advance rather than decided hand by hand.

How Ranges Are Written and Visualized

Players and trainers use several methods to describe ranges. The most common is compact notation:

• 22+ means every pocket pair from 22 through AA.
• ATs+ means suited aces from ATs through AKs.
• AJo+ means offsuit aces from AJo through AKo.
• T9s-76s means suited connectors from T9s down to 76s.
• A specific hand such as KQo is written exactly that way.

Ranges are also frequently shown as a percentage of all 1,326 combinations. A 15% range is roughly 199 combinations.

Finally, the 13×13 hand matrix (often color-coded) is the standard visual tool. Pocket pairs run down the diagonal, suited hands appear above the diagonal, and offsuit hands appear below it.

Building Preflop Ranges by Position

Position is the single biggest factor that shapes opening ranges. In a typical 6-max cash game with 100 big blinds, approximate opening ranges look like this:

Under the Gun (UTG) — roughly 12–16%

Example: 77+, ATs+, KJs+, QJs, AJo+, KQo.

Early position ranges are tight because many players still have to act and you will often play out of position.

Cutoff — roughly 25–30%

You can add more suited connectors, weaker suited aces, and some offsuit broadways. Only the button and blinds remain.

Button — roughly 40–50%

The widest opening range. You have position post-flop and only need to get through the blinds.

Includes many suited connectors, one-gappers, and offsuit hands that would be folds from earlier positions.

These percentages shift with stack depth, ante structure, and whether the game is cash or tournament. Shorter stacks in tournaments generally tighten early-position ranges while making late-position and blind-stealing ranges more aggressive.

How Ranges Narrow as the Hand Progresses

Start with the preflop range, then remove hands that do not match subsequent actions.

Suppose the cutoff opens and the big blind calls. The big blind’s range is capped—it does not contain the very strongest hands that would have 3-bet.

On a flop of K♠ 9♦ 4♣, the cutoff’s continuation-betting range will include strong made hands (sets, top pair with good kickers), some medium hands that can improve, and a selection of bluffs with equity or blockers.

Each street provides new information. A player who checks the turn after betting the flop has often removed strong value hands from their range.

A player who raises the river is usually polarized—either a very strong hand or a bluff—because medium-strength hands prefer to call or check.

Common Range Shapes

Linear (or merged) ranges

These contain the strongest hands down to a cutoff. Most opening ranges are linear.

They include premium pairs, strong broadway hands, and then progressively weaker holdings until the bottom of the range.

Polarized ranges

These consist of very strong hands and bluffs with few medium-strength hands in between. A river raise is often polarized.

A 3-bet range can also be polarized (value hands plus selected bluffs) or more linear depending on the situation.

Capped ranges

A range is capped when it cannot contain the strongest possible hands. The big blind’s calling range against an open is typically capped because the absolute best hands would have 3-bet.

Recognizing when an opponent’s range is capped is a major advantage on later streets.

Putting Ranges to Work

Once you can assign reasonable ranges, decision-making becomes clearer.

You estimate your equity against the opponent’s range. You decide whether your hand is strong enough to value bet against that range, whether it has enough equity or blockers to bluff, or whether it is a clear fold.

You also begin to notice when your own range is stronger or weaker than your opponent’s and adjust your aggression accordingly.

Study tools such as solvers express all their outputs in ranges. Learning to read range charts and understand combo counting (how many actual combinations of each hand exist) makes these tools far more useful.

Common Mistakes

• Putting an opponent on one exact hand instead of a range.
• Using the same opening range from every position.
• Ignoring stack depth and table dynamics.
• Failing to update the range as new cards and actions appear.
• Treating percentage ranges as if every hand inside them is equally likely—some hands appear more often (offsuit hands have 12 combos) than others.

Conclusion

A range is the full set of hands a player can logically hold given everything that has happened in the hand.

Moving from hand-guessing to range thinking is one of the highest-leverage improvements available to any poker player. It improves preflop selection, hand reading, equity calculations, and betting decisions on every street.

Start by learning solid opening ranges by position. Practice assigning and narrowing ranges as you review hands. Over time the process becomes automatic, and your decisions become both more accurate and more consistent.