Poker Range: Thinking in Sets of Hands, Not One Hand
A poker range is the set of hands a player can hold at a point in the hand. It is counted in combos: a pair has 6, a suited hand 4, an offsuit hand 12, so 16 for A‑K suited and offsuit, and 1,326 starting hands in all. A decision is judged against that whole range, not against a single hand.
Q♠J♠ on the river facing a button bet
In the small blind with Q♠J♠, you called the flop and the turn. Board J♦ 8♠ 5♣ 9♠ 2♦, the button bets 80% pot on the river. Fold, call or check‑raise all‑in?
See the answer
Calling 80% pot needs 30.8% equity. Here is an example range of 12 combos the button could bet, and how Q♠J♠ does against each:
| Button's hands | What they hold | Result for Q♠J♠ |
|---|---|---|
| A♥J♥, A♣J♣, K♥J♥, K♣J♣ | top pair, better kicker | loses |
| J♥9♥, J♣9♣ | two pair | loses |
| T♥7♥, T♦7♦ | straight | loses |
| A♠K♠, A♠4♠, K♠T♠, K♦Q♦ | missed draws | wins |
Against this range, Q♠J♠ wins 4 times out of 12, so 33.3%, above the call's 30.8%. If the button bluffed with only two of those hands, Q♠J♠ would win just 2 times out of 10, so 20%, and the call would lose. The expected answer is the call: it assumes the button bets enough missed draws on this board.
Counting a range in combos
| Hand type | Combos | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pair | 6 | 8♥8♦, 8♥8♣… |
| Suited hand | 4 | A♠K♠, A♥K♥… |
| Offsuit hand | 12 | A♠K♥, A♦K♣… |
| Two different ranks, any suits | 16 | A‑K |
Visible cards remove some: on this board, with J♠ in hand and J♦ on the board, only 2 jacks are left, so A‑J is down to 4 × 2 = 8 combos.
Keep going
- The full count of the 1,326 hands: poker combinatorics.
- Calling on the river with a medium hand: river bluff catcher.
- The price of a bluff, from the bettor's side: how often a bluff must work.
- The price of a call: pot odds.
- When one hand dominates another: dominated hands.
- One spot every day: the daily poker puzzle.
- The two shapes of range: polarized vs merged range.
- The cards that remove combos from a range: poker blockers.
- Who has more good hands on the board: range advantage.
- A range turned into a share of hands: VPIP and PFR.
- Narrowing a range action by action: poker hand reading.
To go from one opposing hand to a whole range, see how to calculate equity vs range.
Sources
- Every result is computed by exact enumeration with the app's equity module, and every price with its pot odds module, checked on October 11, 2026.
- The button's range is an example to illustrate the calculation; it does not come from a solver. The answer to the spot is written by the app's author.