Basic Hand Reading

If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out Jonathan Little’s elite training site at PokerCoaching.com/CardPlayer.

When watching world-class poker players in action, it often seems like they “know” what their opponents have, as if they have x-ray vision and can see their hole cards. While many people think this is some unnatural gift they were lucky enough to be blessed with, in reality, they understand how hand ranges interact.

It is important to understand that unless your opponent is especially bad, you should strive to put them on a range of hands and then narrow that range as play progresses based on their action. Do not simply put them on one specific hand before the flop and trust that blind guess all the way to the river!

For example, when someone raises before the flop, they could have hands like A-A, 7-7, or K-Q offsuit. As long as they play these hands in the same manner, you have no way of knowing which one they have. One of the biggest errors novice players make is to put their opponent on exactly one hand, because in reality, their opponent would play many hands in the same manner.

Suppose a tight, straightforward player raises from early position to $25 out of his $500 stack in a $2-$5 cash game. You can immediately narrow the opponent’s range to roughly these hands:

This chart assumes all hands in red would be played in the same manner (raised to $25), but perhaps your opponent uses a strategy that also involves limping, resulting in some hands being raised and others being limped, but either way, their raising range will be roughly the same. Of course, if your opponent is looser and more aggressive, their range would be wider.

Suppose only you call for $20 more from the big blind. The flop comes 9 7 6. You check and your tight opponent bets $30 into the $52 pot.

Let’s presume your opponent makes the typical mistake of continuation betting with every hand in their range on this board that should be quite good for your big blind defending range. If that is the case, your marginal made hands such as K 6 and A-8 have plenty of equity to justify calling, so you call.

The turn is the 5.

This is an excellent spot to bet into your opponent, both with your best hands as well as your draws and made hands that are unlikely to be ahead at the moment, because you have way more premium hands (straights) in your range than your opponent.

Notice your opponent has almost no combinations of straights in their range. If your opponent will fold all hands worse than three-of-a-kind, they will fold almost everything.

Even if your opponent will continue with an overpair, they will still fold 64% of the time, making a lead extremely profitable. Always be sure to consider how your range interacts with your opponent and then play accordingly.

If you want more resources to help you improve your game, I put together a course called Master the Fundamentals. This course covers the basics, preflop, post-flop, multiway, turn and river strategy, and much more. This course is completely free inside Card Player Poker School! ♠

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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT winner and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.