Poker Ranges: The Complete Guide to Preflop Ranges (With Charts)

The sharpest line between a stuck player and an improving one comes down to one word: ranges. The first plays HIS hand. The second plays entire distributions of hands — his own and his opponent's. This guide lays the concept flat: what a range is, how preflop ranges are built, how to read a chart, and how to make them stick for good.

What is a range in poker?

A range is the complete set of hands a player can hold in a given situation. When you open the button, you're not opening “a hand” — you're opening every hand you'd make that move with, and your opponent reasons against that entire set. Modern poker is played range versus range: your actual cards are just one random draw from your distribution.

It's a mental software update: instead of “I have ace-queen, what do I do?”, the real question becomes “which part of my range opens here, and is ace-queen in it?”. The second question has a computable answer. The first leads to guessing.

How preflop ranges are built

Three factors shape your preflop range, in order of importance:

• Position: the later you act, the wider you open — under the gun opens roughly 15% of hands, the button more than 40%.
• Stack depth: at 100 big blinds, speculative hands (small pairs, suited connectors) gain value; at 20 big blinds, high cards dominate and push-or-fold takes over.
• The action before you: opening is one range, flat-calling another, 3-betting a third — each tighter than the last.

How to read a range chart (the 13×13 grid)

A range chart is a 169-cell grid: pairs on the diagonal, suited hands above it, offsuit hands below. Each cell is colored by action — open, call, 3-bet, fold — sometimes with mixed frequencies (“AJo: 3-bet 50%, call 50%”). A typical button open at 25 big blinds reads: every pair, every ace, most broadways, plenty of suited connectors. If it looks wide, that's because it should be: in position, almost everything plays well.

Linear, polarized, capped: the three range shapes

• Linear: the best hands with no gaps — the classic shape of an opening range or value-heavy 3-bet.
• Polarized: very strong hands plus bluffs, nothing in between — typical of a light 3-bet or a big river bet.
• Capped: a range WITHOUT its monsters (you just flatted preflop — your AA/KK would have 3-bet). That's the range you attack.

Recognizing the shape of your opponent's range tells you when to attack: a capped range on a scary board is an open invitation.

How to memorize poker ranges (without rote learning)

Nobody memorizes 169 cells per position by reciting them. What works: understand the logic (why this hand makes the cut and its neighbor doesn't), then drill. You play hands, you answer, you get corrected, and the grid burns in through repetition — exactly like vocabulary in a new language. That's the PokGenius Ranger + Trainer combo: the Ranger to browse solver-computed ranges by position and stack depth, the Trainer to play them until they're reflexes. Two weeks of drills beat two years of “I think this is an open”.

The most common range mistakes

• Playing the same range from every seat — mistake number one, and the most expensive.
• Copying a chart without understanding it: the first unusual spot breaks everything.
• Forgetting your opponent has a range too: your hand never plays against “a hand”, it plays against a distribution.
• Never 3-betting as a bluff: your 3-bet range becomes a billboard that says “I have aces”.