Ranges and combos

What a range is, counting combos, and the cards you can see.

You'll almost never know the exact two cards your opponent holds. What you can know is their range: every hand they would play the way they just played. Reading a range, and narrowing it each time they act, is the one habit this app trains.

In short

A range is every hand they'd play the way they just did.
Pairs have 6 combos, suited hands 4, offsuit hands 12.
Cards you can see remove combos from their range.
Count the combos, not the hands: that's what makes a range strong or weak.

A range is every hand they'd play this way

Say the TAG opens from under the gun. A solid regular opens these hands from that seat:

AAAKsAQsAJsATsA9sA8sA7sA6sA5sA4sA3sA2sAKoKKKQsKJsKTsK9sK8sK7sK6sK5sK4sK3sK2sAQoKQoQQQJsQTsQ9sQ8sQ7sQ6sQ5sQ4sQ3sQ2sAJoKJoQJoJJJTsJ9sJ8sJ7sJ6sJ5sJ4sJ3sJ2sAToKToQToJToTTT9sT8sT7sT6sT5sT4sT3sT2sA9oK9oQ9oJ9oT9o9998s97s96s95s94s93s92sA8oK8oQ8oJ8oT8o98o8887s86s85s84s83s82sA7oK7oQ7oJ7oT7o97o87o7776s75s74s73s72sA6oK6oQ6oJ6oT6o96o86o76o6665s64s63s62sA5oK5oQ5oJ5oT5o95o85o75o65o5554s53s52sA4oK4oQ4oJ4oT4o94o84o74o64o54o4443s42sA3oK3oQ3oJ3oT3o93o83o73o63o53o43o3332sA2oK2oQ2oJ2oT2o92o82o72o62o52o42o32o22

The TAG's opening range from under the gun.

That's their range. On the grid it's a tidy block in the top left: every pair, the big suited hands and the best offsuit ones. It's about 14% of all starting hands.

Different players open very differently from the same seat. These are approximate opening ranges from under the gun (they open wider from later positions):

Villain	Opens from UTG
The Nit	11% of hands
The TAG	14%
The LAG	20%
The Maniac	38%

Knowing which player you're up against tells you how wide their range starts. Every read builds from there.

Combos: counting the hands

A "hand" like AK actually comes in many versions, depending on suits. Each exact two-card version is a combo:

A pair (like 99): 6 combos
A suited hand (like AKs): 4 combos, one per suit
An offsuit hand (like AKo): 12 combos

9♦9♣9♥9♣9♥9♦9♠9♣9♠9♦9♠9♥

99: 6 combos.

A♣K♣A♦K♦A♥K♥A♠K♠

AKs: 4 combos.

A♣K♦A♣K♥A♣K♠A♦K♣A♦K♥A♦K♠A♥K♣A♥K♦A♥K♠A♠K♣A♠K♦A♠K♥

AKo: 12 combos.

So AK, suited and offsuit together, is 16 combos. There are 1,326 combos in the whole deck.

Two things follow from this:

Offsuit hands outnumber suited ones three to one. If a range has both AKo and AKs, most of its AK is offsuit.
Pairs are rare. Each pair is only 6 combos, so a range that's "all the pairs" is less of it than it looks on the grid.

Blockers: the cards you can see

Cards you can see can't be in their hand. That removes combos:

You hold an ace: they now have only 3 combos of AA (not 6) and 12 of AK (not 16).
The board: on a K-7-2 flop, KK drops from 6 combos to 3. If you also hold a king, it drops to 1. Every hand with a king, a seven or a two loses combos the same way.

K♥7♦2♣

The flop: one king is gone, so only three combos of KK are left.

That's what the small number on a grid cell shows: how many combos of that hand are still possible, given the cards you can see. On this flop the KK cell shows 3.

Why counting matters

A range's strength is about how many combos of each kind it holds, not which hands are in it.

Take a range with 9 combos of sets and 40 combos of flush and straight draws. It contains the nuts, but it's mostly draws. If you treat it as strong, you'll fold too often. If you count it, you'll see that most of the time they're drawing.

Combos also explain what's missing. When the TAG in the big blind just calls a button open, they call with the first grid below, because the second grid 3-bets instead. So their calling range has almost no big pairs. When an ace or king flops, it hits them less than you might expect.

The TAG's call from the big blind: 154 combos.

What they 3-bet instead: 72 combos. No big pair ever just calls.

Each action narrows it

Each action removes the part of the range that would not have played that way. Calling instead of 3-betting, checking the flop, betting the turn: each one deletes some hands and leaves the rest. That's why a read always starts from what they had a moment ago, not from scratch.

Try it

When the villain acts, before you tap Make your read, ask yourself: what did they start with, and which part of it plays this way? Count roughly: is most of it pairs, draws or nothing? Then paint it.