In case you’re unsure of what it is, a hand range is the spread of hands any particular opponent can have on any street. A player’s range will vary depending on his looseness/tightness, position, and activity level pre-flop, which can be narrowed down even further by his actions on the flop, turn and river.
Simple hand ranges came about from the first old-school live tournament pros who taught new players about the perils of playing Broadway junk (K-J, Q-T etc) in early position at full ring tables. But as the games have moved on, hand ranges have changed along with the players. In six-max cash games, hand ranges can be incredibly varied. You could have a 90/10 fish (playing 90% of hands but only raising 10%) and a 12/10 nit at the same table- players who are at completely opposite ends of the hand range spectrum.
In hold’ em, hand ranges are very important because very rarely does somebody have a super-strong hand. In order to be a successful player – in six-max particularly – you need to try to win as many of the pots as possible when neither you, nor your opponent has much of a hand. The best way to do this is to ramp up your non-showdown winnings by understanding hand ranges, in turn enabling you to read players’ hands more effectively and get away with winning far more than your ‘fair share’ of pots.
But how do you do this?
When you can’t see the cards your opponent is holding, you need to be able to form an opinion by creating a range of hands your opponent could have. As the hand progressed you should continue to narrow this range. This helps you when you want to represent a scare card, give up on boards that have hit your opponents’ ranges hard, or go for thin value bets against an opponent whose hand strength you are pretty certain of.
Improving your win rate
Thinking about hand ranges leads to hand reading. Good hand reading leads to good decisions, and that, as we all know, leads to more chips and cash dollars.
Hand reading is like most of the skills in poker – there’s no pass and fail, just a far more gradual learning curve. Thinking about hand ranges as a six-max player will help you beat other players, whether it be by including Q-x suited from your cutoff opening range when there are tight players in the blinds, to three-betting K-J suited from the button against a mid-position open from a loose player. Understanding how ranges interact with each other in terms of relative strength, implied odds and 101 other factors is sure to make you a tougher opponent at the tables.