Poker

Poker range

Also called

Range of hands; range.

Applies to

Poker hand-reading and strategy, especially inferring an opponent's likely holdings.

How it works

A player assigns a range based on action, position, and board texture, then updates it as new betting or community cards appear.¹²

Key points

• A range is a spectrum of plausible holdings, not a single hand.¹²
• Ranges are updated as new information arrives, such as bets or community cards.¹²
• The concept applies across all poker variants and streets, not just preflop.³¹
• Players narrow an opponent's range by eliminating hands that would not have taken the observed actions.²

How ranges are built

Players construct ranges by considering an opponent's position, previous actions, and the board texture. For example, a player who raises from early position is typically assigned a tighter range than one who raises from the button.⁴ As the hand progresses, the range is narrowed by eliminating hands that would not have taken the observed actions.²

Where this term is used

• Poker

Not the same as

• Poker preflop ranges — a subset of ranges assigned before any community cards are dealt; poker range is broader and applies on later streets as well
• Poker ranges by position — ranges structured around seat position; poker range is the general concept, while position-based ranges are one way of constructing it
• Poker range percentage — a numeric estimate of how wide a range is; poker range is the underlying set, not the percentage expression

Related terms

Sources

1. PokerSkill: LLMs Can Play Expert-Level Poker without ... arxiv.org Defines poker range and explains how it is used in hand-reading.
2. Playing the Player: A Heuristic arxiv.org Describes how ranges are updated as new information appears.
3. Glossary of poker terms en.wikipedia.org Provides the glossary definition of poker range.
4. Position (poker) en.wikipedia.org Explains how position influences range construction.

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.