Table Of Contents

Are you struggling to figure out what starting hands to play and how poker positions change the way you play preflop? You are not alone.

An illustrated guide to poker hand rankings. Two pairs of cards of the same number or rank, such as 2-7-7-9-9. The higher pair is used to determine the winner if more than one player has two pair, so that nines and twos would beat eights and sevens. Poker Hand Calculator For Poker Ranges. To fully utilize the poker hand calculator, follow the steps below: 1. You obviously need a poker room to play. Make sure to check out one of the best poker rooms, William Hill. So, now you're playing at one of the poker rooms. You also have our range calculator available.

This article isn't a poker strategy crash course. Instead of focusing on generic winning poker tips and bankroll management advice like many other training poker sites do, it gives you something different.

It's a collection of advanced poker charts that improves your poker game by showing you how to play preflop. It gives you a clear overview of the starting hands range you should consider through some handy poker hands chart images, PDFs, and Excel files.

Continue reading to learn:

• And lots more

In other words, if you are looking for an in-depth game strategy guide to learn what is the best way to play poker preflop, you'll love this collection of poker range charts.

Why a Page about Poker Ranges?

All poker players have been there. Short-stacked. Bleeding chips with every orbit while staring at junk hand after junk hand. Feeling their chances of winning the tournament dwindle ever further while their stack continues to shrink.

Finally, they get a halfway decent hand. Nobody has entered the pot.

Is it time to shove?

There's an easy way to find out. Enter poker range charts. These handy tools allow players to see which poker hand ranges to play in preflop scenarios where the pot is unopened and a player plans to shove or fold.

Playing the proper ranges according to preflop charts make it so your play can't be exploited, so memorizing these is the key to short-stacked play.

Read on to learn more and find the accompanied printable poker hand ranges chart as a tool you can study to improve your performance when short-stacked.

What are poker ranges?

For those unfamiliar a poker hand range is simply a set of poker hands that may be held by a player. We try to estimate our opponents' ranges because guessing exact hole cards is a fruitless, nearly impossible exercise in most cases.

For example, if the tightest player you've ever seen reraises you preflop in hold'em, you may estimate their range to be aces and kings only.

On the other hand, if a player who hasn't folded one hand in an hour calls your raise, you may estimate their range to include any two cards in the deck. Of course, most hand ranges will be somewhere in between.

How Do You Calculate Poker Ranges?

Analyzing ranges can be a tricky proposition, and only by learning game theory and playing thousands of hands can a poker player get better at it.

Including some proper proper preflop strategy in your poker training will help you understand what poker hand ranges they'll play.

The more time you spend playing and watching opponents' hands at showdown, the more clues you'll get about their strategy. That will enable you to get more precise estimates of their ranges when playing future hands.

This video from poker pro Jonathan Little explores the concept in a little more depth and tries to answer the question 'how do I think in terms of hand ranges?'

How to Use Preflop Range Charts

Every position at the poker table has a certain range of starting hands that can be profitably shoved at a given stack depth.

Generally, these stack depths are at 20 big blinds or less.

Preflop range charts outline the hands that constitute a winning shoving range.

A player who knows these charts can shove with a positive expected value (+EV) no matter what cards are held by the opponents remaining to act.

Here on PokerNews you find free preflop poker charts for five different stack depths at both six-max tables and nine-handed tables.

Here's how to use them:

1. Figure out how many big blinds you have in your stack.
2. Go to the corresponding chart. If you have a stack that doesn't match one exactly, pick the closest one.
3. Go to the column that corresponds to your seat.
4. Scroll down until you get to the row that corresponds to your hole cards — the chart starts with pairs at the top, then ace-high hands, then king-high and so on.
5. You can shove all of the hands listed there, as well as any hands to the left that were shoved in an earlier seat.

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Poker Ranges Charts

Here are 10 essential poker charts to help your preflop poker game.

They're broken into two categories: full-ring ranges and six-max ranges. Each category features shoving hands for five different stack sizes, raised in increments of three big blinds.

As you'll often have stacks in between these sizes, it may take a small amount of guesswork and intuition to expand or tighten the ranges a bit and get the appropriate strategy.

1. Full Ring Ranges Poker Charts

2. Six-Max Ranges Poker Charts

Use the Printable Poker Charts on Excel!

Want to bring all the poker charts with you? Make a copy of this shared Excel file and download the full collection of our advanced poker charts.

To create your own copy of all the poker charts on this article:

• Click on 'File'
• Then click on 'Create a Copy'
• Done! You can now use all these poker ranges charts to improve your win rate!

These are optimal poker ranges for winning chips if your opponents are calling correctly. Each poker chart should be adjusted depending on reads you can gather when you play cash games or tournament poker.

• If your opponents are calling too wide, shove a little tighter so you're more likely to have the best of it.
• If your opponents aren't calling wide enough, widen your range of hands and shove a few extra hands because you are likely to be able to steal their blinds.

Considerations should also be made for the state of the poker tournament, i.e. proximity to the money bubble, a pay jump, or a final table.

These can heavily influence calling ranges and proper shoving strategy, changing the way you should play if you are using these poker charts to play winning poker.

Some bits of the poker ranges charts may look a bit weird, specifically in regard to suited ace-high hands.

This is because some of the small suited aces perform slightly better against calling ranges than middle aces. At certain stack depths and positions, it's better to shove ace-five suited than ace-seven suited, for example.

How to memorize poker ranges

Given that there are 169 different hands in Texas hold'em poker, differently sized tables, and slightly different shoving ranges for every stack depth, it's unreasonable to think you'll be able to perfectly memorize an exactly correct shoving strategy.

Furthermore, doing so would probably be counter-productive, as you're better off dedicating your brainpower and efforts elsewhere.

Getting a rough idea of correct preflop poker ranges to shove will allow you to play well with a short stack while still improving your game in other aspects with your remaining study time.

There's no handy acronym like 'Roy G. Biv' (rainbow colors) or 'PEMDAS' (order of mathematical operations) to help you remember the shoving strategy offered in all the preflop range charts on this page.

And despite what other poker guides and poker training sites say, the purpose of poker charts like these ones is not to have you memorise everything. That's not how you will improve your win rate.

The best way to learn is to make your shoves and then continually check afterward whether it was correct. Eventually, the raising ranges will start to take shape in your memory.

Here are a few poker tips to keep in mind:

• Pairs are great to jam with. If you're under 10 big blinds, you can almost jam with any pair from any position. With such a small stack, waiting for top pairs is not a good idea.
• If your cards are unpaired, it's obviously preferable to have high suited cards.
• Small suited hands lose a lot of value in preflop shoving situations compared to their deep-stacked playability. Many hands wind up unimproved by the river, so the higher cards will win in these spots.
• Still, hands with a high card and low card (something like king-five offsuit) might be favored against something like ten-nine suited in a head-to-head clash, but the latter performs better against opponents' calling hands, so it's preferable to shove with.

• The biggest jumps in shoving range will come the closer you get to the big blind — i.e., the difference between shoving in the first two seats is far less than the difference in shoving between the button and small blind.

  This is because one extra fold represents a much bigger portion of the remaining opponents, meaning the likelihood of running into a big hand has decreased more significantly. So, get comfortable shoving very wide in the small blind and still quite wide from the button and cutoff.

Most Common Preflop Ranges

_{All percentile ranges you see below are taken from pokerhandrange.com}

Top 7%

If you run into a very tight opponent, expect here or she to be opening something like the top 7% of hands from early or even middle position. Only the tightest ranges will play this way.

What does that look like? About as strong as you'd expect:

• 88
• ATs , AQo
• KJs

Top 15%

Opening the top 15% of hands is still quite tight, but allows a bit more play down to the strong offsuit Broadways, most of the suited aces, and all of the suited Broadways.

It's probably close to a 'typical' opening range for a standard live player:

• 66
• A5s , ATo
• K9s , KJo
• Q9s , JTs

Printable Poker Hands

Top 35%

If you run into a player who is aggressively trying to steal seemingly every time it's folded to them in late position, their range might be in the top 35% or so of hands, or potentially even wider.

That's going to include a great many suited combos with even just one Broadway, as well as some fairly weak offsuit holdings down to jack-nine:

• 33
• A2s , A5o
• K2s , K8o
• Q4s , Q9o
• J7s , J9o
• T7s
• 97s
• 87s

Top 60%

Only the absolute loosest, most aggressive opposition will play a range this wide, but it certainly does happen.

The top 60% is usually reserved for short-stacked players shoving from the button and small blind, so if you wonder what that range might look like, here it is:

• 22
• Ax
• K2s , K3o
• Q2s , Q5o
• J2s , J7o
• T2s , T7o
• 94s , 97o
• 84s
• 74s
• 64s
• 54s

Additional Readings

Now that you have our starting hands range and you have all the information you need on your Excel printable file, it's time to continue this poker lab experiment with more poker guides.

If you are really committed to playing better poker, here's a list that will help you reach your goals.

• Essential Poker Tips: a complete collection of the most effective poker tips we know. While some might be more beginner-oriented, other tidbits might help also more seasoned players.
• Poker Equity: one of the most popular poker articles ever published in our advanced poker strategy section. This is one of those must-read poker guides you need to go through at least once in your (poker) life.
• Poker Positions: having our printable poker range charts in PDF is not enough to become a winning poker player. You need a lot more — including this guide to poker positions. Learn how every position named at the table and learn how to use everything to your advantage when you fire up your poker software.
• The Best Online Poker Sites: the world-famous and award-winnings PokerNews rankings. If you ever wanted to play a hand of online poker, this is the perfect starting point for you.
• Mobile Poker Sites: some poker software a great on desktop, but how about their mobile apps? Read this one to find out what brands offer the top mobile products in the industry.
• Free Poker Sites: Not all online games cost money. All the sites on this list offer great poker games that will cost you nada.
• Poker Freerolls: want to win real money prizes but don't want to risk your own? play a freeroll! This page gives you access to all the top free poker tournaments happening right now.

_{Additional Note:}

_{The shoving ranges in this article, while available in many forms on different poker resources, were specifically taken from SnapShove. Check out SnapShove for more information about preflop shoving and calling strategy.}

For beginner poker players, memorizing the poker hand rankings can seem overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts in a poker hand and trying to remember if a straight beats a flush can be confusing.

Don't panic, though. What seems confusing at first will become second nature very quickly. As an added benefit, poker hand rankings for all standard 'high hand' poker games - Texas Hold'em, Omaha, 7-Card Stud, etc - are always the same.

A Royal Flush will always be the best hand you can get. A full house will always beat a flush. And a set will always beat two pair.

There are some poker hand ranking situations that will arise where you might need a little help - we've identified and explained a few of those below the hand ranking chart below.

Trust us - you'll get it! And soon you'll be the expert explaining to your friend at your home game why his two pair is the losing hand. Bookmark this page to keep our poker hand ranking chart as an easy reference guide - and check back for a downloadable Poker Hand Ranking PDF to come soon!

Official Poker Hand Rankings

Poker Hand Ranking FAQ

Which is higher a flush or a straight?

Always the flush is higher! This is one of the bigger misconceptions of poker hand rankings.

Despite it seeming to some that a straight is more difficult to get, a flush – meaning five cards of the same suit – is actually less likely of a hand to put together. Therefore the Flush is ranked higher than the Straight.

This applies in every situation – even if the Straight has more high cards (or the highest card) between the two hands. A Straight Flush, which is a straight with all of the cards of the same suit (eg. 4h-5h-6-h-7h-8h), is higher than both of those hands.

Which is higher, three-of-a-kind or two pair?

This is another common poker hand ranking confusion. A “set” or “trips” or 3 of a kind ALWAYS beats two pair.

Again it doesn’t matter if it’s a set of 2s and the two pair are Aces and Kings – the set always wins.

How do you know which two pair hand is higher?

The ranking of your two-pair hand is NEVER the sum of your two pairs. So, for example, two pair of Aces and 2s is ALWAYS higher than two pairs of Kings and Queens. The face cards look more powerful, sure, but it is only the HIGHEST single pair of the two pair that determines the winner.

If both of the high pairs are the same then the second pair will determine the winner. If both pairs are exactly the same the higher 5th card – aka “the kicker” decides the winner.

How do you know which Flush is higher?

If two players both have a Flush the hand with the highest card is the winning Flush. This means any Flush with an Ace is it will win over any other Flush. Much like two pair the combined total of the Flush is not relevant – only the single highest card determines the winning hand.

So: Ah-9h-7h-5h-2h beats Kh-Qh-Jh-Th-8h

If the top card of the Flush is the same in both hands (ie it’s from the shared community cards), the next highest Flush that’s not shared determines the winner. If the Flush is entirely on the board and neither player has a card of the same suit in their hole cards, it’s a split pot as long as neither player folds.

What is a kicker in poker?

A kicker is an unmatched card that's not part of a made hand that determines who wins when two players have the same ranked hand.

Order Of Poker Hands Chart

For example if both player have a single pair of aces, the next highest card in each of their hands are matched against each other to see which is highest. Eg.

• Player 1 has A-A-Q-6-2
• Player 2 has A-A-9-7-6

Player 1 is the winner as the Queen 'kicker' is higher than the 9 kicker. If the first kicker cards are the same, eg AAQ and AAQ, the next kicker card is then used to determine the winner.

If players both have the exact same two-pairs, the remaining fifth card is the kicker. If players have the exact same three-of-a-kind, the remaining two cards are kickers. If both hands have just a single high card all cards are considered the kickers

What does it mean to 'play the board?'

Playing the board means the 5 shared community cards in the middle of the table are the five cards that make up a player's best possible five card hand.

For example if the board cards are:

A-K-Q-J-T of different suits and a player's hole cards are the 6-7 of hearts, that player's best possible 5-card hand is the Broadway straight and his or her hole cards are inconsequential to the hand.

If all players left in the hand are 'playing the board,' the pot is split evenly among them. A player must make it all the way to the showdown to play the board.

Do Aces count as high or low?

In a standard 'high' poker game like Texas Hold'em aces can be played as either high or low. An ace can be used, for example, to complete the bottom end of the straight A-2-3-4-5. This is called a 'wheel' is is the lowest possible straight.

It can also of course be used as a high card as as the high end of a straight eg A-K-Q-J-T. It cannot, however, be 'wrapped around.' So Q-K-A-2-3 is NOT a straight.

In Lowball games Aces can be either high or low; it depends on the game variation. For specific poker hand rankings for lowball games, check our rules pages below.

Is 'Three Pair' a hand?

Three pair is not a hand. Your best poker hand is made up of 5 cards and 5 cards only. You can never have three pair.

Which poker suit is the highest?

In standard 'high hand' poker games like Texas Hold'em and Omaha, suits are not ranked compared to each other. Meaning no one suit is ranked higher and suits are not used to determine the winning hand. Only the card rankings matter

In other card games, however, suits can be ranked and come into play when determining betting order or winning hands. Typically suits are ranked in reverse alphabetical order from lowest to highest.

The only place where suit can come into play in poker is in 7-Card Stud, when the player with the lowest card showing has to pay the 'bring in' bet in the first betting round. If two players have the same ranked card, suits can be used to break the tie.

Are all red cards or all black cards a good hand?

Unless the suits are the same, five cards all of the same color are not a poker hand. A Flush by definition will have all red or black cards but all the cards must be diamonds or hearts or clubs or spades for it to be a Flush.

More Poker Games Rules

Further Reading:

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