| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

How to Put Your Opponent on a Range in Poker

In his book The Theory of Poker, David Sklansky says “to play a hand correctly is to play it the exact same way you would if you knew your opponent’s hole cards.”

Of course, unless your opponent is especially clueless, this is never going to be possible in the real poker world.

You should, however, be constantly trying to put your opponent on a hand – or, more accurately, a range of hands.

How to Assign a Poker Range

Often you'll be playing and will hear someone say "I put you on x, so I called" or "I put you on y, so I raised." This is the wrong way to think about your opponent's holdings.

negreanu5
A Negreanu hand call-out is rare.

You'll rarely - if ever - be able to determine your opponent's hand down to the very two cards he holds

Instead, what you should be trying to do is assign a range of hands.

But assigning your opponent a range is not as easy as it might sound. At the beginning of the hand you have little information and his hand range is fairly wide.

As the hand plays out, though, you pick up more information and can define his range more accurately. Example:

  • Six-max game online. Effective stacks $200; blinds $1/$2.
  • Your opponent on the button plays your average TAG game; let's say 18% of hands played, 15% raising pre-flop.
  • You have J♥ J♣ and raise to $7 from under the gun.
  • Two players call and your villain on the button calls as well.
  • Because of the limpers his calling range is very large - much larger than normal

Let's just take a couple minutes and fully think about it. We can exclude AA, KK, QQ and A-K because those hands are almost always re-raised pre-flop.

They are especially unlikely since your average TAG will not want to play any of those multi-way. So, if you were that TAG on the button, which hands would you call with?

Well, hands that play well multi-way. When assigning a range it's never going to be completely accurate, but we can come up with approximations. At this stage of the hand we can figure his range as being:

  • A-Q to A-T
  • Axs
  • K-Qs
  • K-Qo
  • K-Js
  • Q-Js to 5-6s
  • J-9s to 9-7s
  • TT-22

Granted, some of those are more likely than others, but that's the general range we can assign to his pre-flop call. As you can see, it's huge. So far all you have to go on is his pre-flop call after two limpers.

You'll have to wait until the flop to further define his range.

How to Assign a Hand Range On the Flop

The flop comes 6♠ 7♠ 2♥. You bet $25 and the first two limpers fold; the button smooth-calls. Your opponent called your raise after limping on the button and has now called your flop.

First: You can take a huge number of hands out of his range. You can eliminate the overcards. Our TAG opponent would fold the flop after missing.

Chances are if he had 8-8 or 7-7 or some other overpair to the board he would have raised the flop, so you can also discount those.

What we're left with is draws, sets, two-pair hands and weak one-pair hands. After the flop his range looks like this:

  • K-Qs to 8-9s in spades (although overcards, flush draws and open-ended straight flush draws are discounted, because most TAGs will raise the flop with those)
  • 6-7s
  • 8-9
  • 7-8
  • 7-9
  • 7-7
  • 6-6
  • 5-5
  • 2-2

All of these hands would at least call the flop. Some of them of course would raise, but when assigning ranges it's sometimes helpful to use all hands that will continue to this flop bet.

As you can see, you've eliminated the bulk of his range. You're now left with a fairly good idea of what your opponent holds.

Get the Best Online Poker Welcome Bonus Now!

How to Assign a Hand Range On the Turn

The turn brings the T♠. You bet $50 and your opponent raises all-in. Do you call? Let's look at his range, which you can define further.

Daniel Negreanu6

Which hands call before the flop, smooth-call the flop, and now raise the turn?

His range looks like this. (Again, some of these are discounted because he would have raised the flop and not waited till the turn when a flush card came to make a move.)

  • K-Qs to 7-8s (suited in spades)
  • 8-9
  • 6-7
  • 7-7
  • 6-6
  • 2-2

His range obviously has you crushed. Very rarely would he take this line with a hand worse than this range.

Information is the Key to Hand Ranges

What starts out as a hazy vision in the fog eventually becomes clearer the more information you get until you can make an educated guess as to his likely holdings.

Remember the idea is to not put him on one exact hand. The idea is to eliminate what he doesn't have and come up with a range of hands he likely holds.

Range is the greatest tool you can use to improve your poker game. If you can accurately deduce your opponent's range, you're going to be making fewer mistakes.

And as we know, fewer mistakes equals more bucks.

Related Strategy Articles:

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News
PCB Mike
2022-04-06 20:37:50

If villain didn’t already have it, 14 different monster hands get there on the river.

mike
2020-07-11 12:47:03

In the first approximation of the opponent’s range, why is A-Q not included? Is A-10 also a possibility?

Stimpy
2016-03-29 21:17:56

I wouldn’t play a suited connector from any position with only 3-4 BB, other than AKs or maybe KQs.

Spizzwolf
2016-01-06 08:09:17

cool

WB
2014-08-20 06:39:01

We assume he would raise an overpair like TT on the flop.

DJ
2014-04-13 08:51:47

Why is pocket TT excluded from the possible range after the turn brings the TS ? The whole hand would make plenty of sense then too

colin
2013-10-01 10:22:04

Anytime I type something into google about poker I always end up at this site. Great site.

daniel brow
2013-02-12 17:19:32

why does his range after the turn contain 78s in spades when 7S is on the flop?

Ringo
2012-01-26 13:02:12

@elvis

Scrap my previous comment, I thought you meant if he re-rased more pre-flop.
If you raised more preflop, and everything else played out as stated, you can still put him on a wide range. He calls preflop because theres 2 callers before him, so he is getting 3/1 (+blinds) for his money. If you make a bigger raise preflop, you would be over-betting the pot, so therefore you can rule out any straight draws, leaving 67, 89spades/45spades, AXs, 77, 66 or 22.

Ringo
2012-01-26 12:50:50

@elvis

If hes tight aggressive and raises preflop, you can probably put him on AA-TT, AKs, AQs, depending on his stack, and the size of the raise. He may even be squeezing with AKos, AQos or AJs/ATs being that he is in position, and there were 2 callers to the initial raise. I would almost certainly fold JJ to a preflop re-raise out of position against a TAG though.

elvis
2011-12-25 14:59:56

just wondering, if the raise was much higher preflop, should i put the raiser’s range wider or narrower? i am sure it depends on the player, but generally?

Daniel
2010-10-26 17:35:04

I agree with him in certain aspects, but the way he explained the hands excluding flush draws because people tend to raise it or people tend to re raise preflop with kings is not always true and is just a general idea. At least in my case, i look the most profitable way to crush my opponents. if i know my opponen and i have kings, sometimes i mix it up and prefer to just flat call. Although most people would argue with me about this, your oppponents don’t expect you to just call a raise with kings. if i have position, i would let the guy with pocket jacks bet and if it is a shitty flop i would raise it, or even some times just calls then raise the the river. I only do this when I have a perfect read and i know my opponent.

Rolando Salomia
2010-10-26 00:13:42

rolando: I want to know more about strategy of poker

claire jacobs
2010-10-22 01:58:17

poker is a game of skill. And I do believe that reading such strategies like this one is very helpful for every players in winning.

Mike
2009-12-23 22:03:21

I tend to narrow it down to broadways, suited connectors or pockets, depending on where my opponent sits, how many pots he opens and where he sits. 3-4 bb OOP= JJ-99 or AQ-KQ. 5-6 bb OOP=AKs-AA-KK-QQ. 3-4 bb in position = SC, AQ-AT, JJ-88. 5-6 bb in position=AA-KK-QQ-JJ-AK-AQ. Those ranges vary depending on the opponent, tighter=less, looser=more.

good start
2009-10-15 05:31:00

Good article to start thinking about hand ranges for people learning the game. Next step would be thinking about combinatronics.
One thing though, you seem to forget AQo and AQs. You start your one gappers at J9s but miss QTs in there and honestly, even a nit TAG would call with KTs on the button, with position on everyone and guaranteed to close the round of betting.
So not to be taken literally. Like I said, it’s important to remember that a 2 card combo is 2.66 times more likely than a pocket pair, etc…That’s a significant difference when evaluating hand ranges.

chowdog
2009-09-03 14:39:00

lol @ Xay… KJ is an overpair? Where do you play? Can I come?

ricber
2008-12-09 04:51:00

Good article. It better clarifies the importance of deducing your opponent `s range.

Xay
2008-09-18 20:01:00

Nice article. The other possiblility is that he is playing overpair like K-J and use the flush to bluff because he already put you on an over-pair.

Daniel Skolovy
2008-08-06 22:10:00

Well of course if he wasn’t a tag player his range would be different. You know how a player plays from watching him play. In this hypothetical example we know from hypothetically observing him that our opponent plays a TAG game.

anti
2008-07-25 23:56:00

A good article, but the real key is to know how your opponents play!
If he wasn’t a TAG player you would be looking at a whole different range of cards.
Remember the rule: ‘Play the Player’!

nutz
2008-04-25 04:15:00

this is a great article. the pros always make it seem like they have this sixth sense of what the other player has but it’s just a trick really. very useful stuff here. thanks.

Dave
2008-04-24 22:27:00

Isn’t the author missing A7s (maybe hearts) after the flop calls your $25? I might call that bet sometimes with a pair, top kicker, an overcard, and a backdoor flush possible. He could be putting you on a range that includes AK and your $25 is just a continuation bet.

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval