Gambling terms, explained straight

Poker

Poker preflop ranges

A preflop range is the collection of two-card starting hands a player is willing to play in a given preflop situation, such as opening, calling a raise, or re-raising.

Also called
Range or pre-flop range14
Applies to
Texas hold 'em and no-limit hold 'em, before any community cards are dealt1
Representation
Often shown as a 13×13 hand matrix of possible starting-hand combinations2

Key points

  • A preflop range is chosen based on action history and situation, such as unopened pot, vs open, 3-bet pot, or short-stack all-in threshold.1
  • It provides compact guidance for opening, calling, 3-betting, 4-betting, and folding, rather than showing every preflop chart at all times.1
  • Preflop ranges are a subset of the broader concept of poker ranges, limited to the preflop round.43

Where this term is used

Not the same as

  • Preflop poker chart — a chart is the visual or table format; a preflop range is the underlying set of hands recommended
  • Poker ranges by position — position-specific preflop ranges are a subset; the term here is the generic range concept
Poker Poker range The broader concept of the set of hands a player could have in any betting round. Poker GTO preflop ranges Preflop ranges derived from game theory optimal strategy, often used as a baseline. Poker Poker range percentage The proportion of all possible starting hands included in a given range. Poker Poker hands chart preflop A visual chart showing which starting hands to play in each preflop situation. Poker Poker hand rankings preflop The ranking of two-card starting hands by their expected strength before the flop. Poker Flush poker A poker hand consisting of five cards of the same suit, not necessarily consecutive.

Sources

  1. PokerSkill: LLMs Can Play Expert-Level Poker without ... arxiv.org Defines preflop range and explains how it is chosen based on action history and situation.
  2. GTO Wizard Benchmark arxiv.org Provides the 13×13 hand matrix representation of starting-hand combinations.
  3. [PDF] Playing the Player: A Heuristic Framework for Adaptive Poker AI - arXiv arxiv.org Distinguishes preflop range from the broader poker range concept.
  4. Glossary of poker terms en.wikipedia.org Confirms the term 'pre-flop range' as a synonym and its use in poker glossary.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.