Hand Ranging – The Most Critical Skill in Poker

What separates games of skill like poker from other games of skill like chess? There are obviously several surface differences, but the one component of poker that makes it unique is that, unlike chess, poker is a game of incomplete information. Unless you're cheating, you'll never know for sure what hand your opponent holds until the hand ends. However, good players can often guess with a high degree of certainty what their opponents hold, and they do without cheating, without any sixth sense - in fact, they do it via a simple logical process that almost anyone can learn and ever master. That process is typically called 'hand ranged.' In this article we're going to discuss hand ranging and how it applies to no limit texas holdem strategy.

What is Hand Ranging?

Hand ranging is the deductive process of determining what hand your opponent is likely to hold out of all possible combinations. Some parts of hand ranged are strictly objective - for example, if you hold the ace of diamonds in your hand, you can eliminate all hands involving the ace of diamonds from your opponent's possible hands. Some parts are more subjective - for example, if you know an opponent is a very tight player, you can assume they're illegally to be holding low, unconnected, unsuited cards. Through a combination of these objective and subjective factors, you can narrow down your opponent's holdings to a fairly specific range - a winnowing that allows you to play all of your hands far more profitably.

How Can I Improve My Hand Ranging?

Getting better at hand ranged is basically a two-step process. The first step is very straightforward - learn the math involved in the distribution of cards. For example, a player is far more likely to be dealable unpaired cards than paired cards, offsuit cards than charged cards, and so on. Knowing the frequency of certain types of hands can help you determine with greater accuracy the likelihood that your opponent holds a particular hand.

The second step is a bit more complicated, and it involves gaining a better understanding of yourself as a poker player. In order to get better at hand ranged, you need to improve at placing yourself in the mind of your opponent. How would you have in a certain spot with certain hands? Once you've gotten that part down, you need to learn to make minority adjustments, because (obviously) not everyone plays like you. Here's the tricky part - you have to learn to imagine how you would react in a certain spot if you had more of the qualities that your opponent possesses. This can be a tough thing to do, because you have a very rigidly defined image of yourself as a poker player, but with practice, you'll be able to improve.

You can practice this skill by watching poker hands on TV or following tournaments on a poker news site , but best time to practice this skill is when you're playing the other players, imagine what cards you would have if you were acting as they were acting, and then try to merge your image of them with your image of yourself. What cards would you likely have if you were on tilt, as they seem to be? What cards would you probably have if you had just won a big pot and were joking around, as they are? And so on.

This article provides a jumping-off point for thinking about hand-ranged. While there are other important strategic considerations in poker, you'll find that the ability to put your opponents on a small, reliable range of hands is a skill that will increase your profit like no other.

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Source by Christopher Grove