What is a poker hand range?
A poker hand range (or hand range or poker range) is a percentage (between 0% and 100%) which how much of the cards dealt to a player plays with in a given situation.
Some examples:
- 1. A hand range of 1% represents the pocket cards: AA and KK
- 2. A poker hand range of 3% represents the pocket cards: All pairs tens and above, plus AKs
- 3. A poker range of 100% represents the pocket cards: all possible combinations
Why is it important to know hand ranges of your opponents?
Knowing the hand range of your opponent in the given situation can give you huge advantage in your decision.
How can I see my opponent's hand ranges?
The anser is: a poker tracking software. These software tools track you played hands and display stats on your opponents. Stats like VPIP, PFR, 3-bet or AF (aggression factor). This information can be invaluable for reading your opponents. The best among them is Holdem Manager. It supports all major poker rooms and is updated frequently.
What do you mean by hand range in a given situation?
Every poker player has significantly different hand ranges for a given position, move and number of opponents.
For example, in a 9-man ring game the players are likely to have a hand range of at 40% (or more) in the small blind, while the range is much lower playing from an early position.
Furthermore, the hand range depends on the type of the move the players makes. Example: a player has a poker range of 25% for putting money in the pot (VPIP). He most likely has a tighter range for open-raising (PFR), like 15%. For a 3-bet, he would have a range like 4.5%.
You mention VPIP, PFR, 3-bet. What are these?
These are abbreviations for moves. VPIP stands for Voluntary Put in Pot, it shows how many hands the player plays. PFR is for pre-flop raise, while 3-bet stands for the third bet. There a lot more of these. For further information you can find a nice glossary (among other useful information) on http://www.pokerstrategy.com/glossary.
Back to the Poker Range Calculator on the home page. What do AA, AKs and AKo mean?
AA stands for any combination of ace pairs. AKs is and ace and a king of the same color, while AKo is an ace and a king of different colors.
And how to use the Poker Hand Calculator?
Well, it's pretty simple. There are two ways to use the calculator.
- 1. (the more common of the two) Enter a percentage value and click calculate. It'll show you the poker range this value represents by highlighting the cards which are in the hand range.
- 2. Click any combinations you want and the calculator will display the percentage they represent. In most cases, this won't be the best combination, so it won't be the best range.
What to do with the link you show on the Calculator?
Well, you can share it freely. Put it in blog entries, forum posts, whereever a link to a visualized hand range is needed.