Hand reading is one of the most important skills for poker players. You can never know your opponent's exact cards, but there are techniques you can use to narrow down your opponent's range throughout the streets.
In this article, you will learn how to read your opponent's hand with confidence and make better decisions at the felt.
Poker Hand Reading Checklist
What is my opponent’s table position?
What was the action sequence?
Do I have any specific reads on the opponent?
Is my opponent's range strong and narrow or weak and wide?
Is my opponent's range merged or polar?
Use the Funnel Principle to Narrow Down Ranges
When the hand starts, your opponent can have any of the potential 1326 starting combinations.
As the hand progresses, your opponent’s range gets narrower based on the actions they take.
As a general rule, the more aggressive your opponent’s actions, the narrower their range and vice versa.
For example, a typical 3-betting range is significantly narrower than an open-raising range, a 4-betting range is narrower than the 3-betting range and so on.
So by the time you get to the river, you can hopefully narrow down your opponent’s range to only a handful of combinations.
When you see Daniel Negreanu calling out their opponent’s exact hand, it may seem like he has near-psychic abilities.
But actually, he just managed to narrow down their opponent’s range to only one combination that makes sense.
It’s also worth noting you should always try to put your opponent on a RANGE of hands, and not try to guess their exact hand.
So through the rest of the article, we’ll take a closer look at how you can use the funnel principle to make better reads against your opponents.
Table Position Heavily Influences Your Opponent’s Range
Generally, players will play tighter ranges in early table positions compared to late table positions.
This applies even to recreational players to an extent, because they will at least unconsciously realize they should tighten up if there’s a bunch of players left to act behind them.
For example, a player may play around 10% of starting hands UTG, but they may play around 40%, or even as high as 50% on the button.
So you can see that the table position can dramatically influence the ranges.
However, it’s worth noting that this is only true if players actually pay attention to their table position.
Recreational players usually won’t be as sensitive to their table position, so they may play roughly the same ranges regardless of where they're seated.
Of course, recreational players will usually play very wide ranges anyway, which makes hand reading against them more challenging.
With that in mind, you don’t necessarily have to hand read against recreational players, because they are likely to make a lot of mistakes like overcalling, overestimating their hand strength and so on.
Know Your Opponent’s Player Type
If you know the type of opponent you’re facing, it will be much easier to hand read against them.
Based on the number of hands they play and the way they play them, your opponents will fall into 4 distinct categories:
Loose and Passive
Loose and Aggressive
Tight and Passive
Tight and Aggressive
So let’s examine how to hand read against each player category.
Hand Reading vs Loose and Passive Players
They will play way too many hands, and play them in a very passive manner (i.e. checking and calling a lot).
Since they play very wide ranges, hand reading against them can be challenging.
But again, against this player type, you don’t need to pinpoint their exact hand to beat them.
Since their calling ranges will usually be very wide, you can just (thin) value bet them over multiple streets and let them pay you off with whatever junk they refuse to fold.
However, if they happen to raise you, especially on later streets, they usually have something to show for it.
These players will usually call with a very wide range, but they will only raise if they have a very strong hand.
In this scenario, you can still call them down if you have a strong hand yourself, because they may make a mistake of overvaluing certain hand combinations (i.e. overestimating their absolute hand strength compared to relative hand strength).
Hand Reading vs Loose and Aggressive Players
These players can be separated into two categories: LAG regulars and LAG fish (aka maniacs.
Both categories will be hard to hand read against, especially the maniacs.
But similar to loose and passive players, you don’t necessarily need to pinpoint their exact hand to play profitably against them.
All you need to know is that the maniacs will have a disproportionately high number of bluffs in their range, so you can adjust your strategy by simply calling them down with a wider range.
This also applies to LAG regulars to a degree, but you should exercise more caution, as this player type will usually balance their range to include a number of strong hands, as well.
Hand Reading vs Tight and Passive Players
These players are also caller rocks or nits.
This player category is arguably easiest to hand read against them, since they usually play in a very straightforward manner.
Tight and passive players don’t play many hands preflop, and usually play very timidly, both preflop and post flop.
This means they will only bet or raise if they have a very strong hand.
So you can usually push these players around with a well-timed aggression, since they will only fight back if they have the nuts, or close to it.
However, like loose and passive players, some tight passive players may display overcalling tendencies.
When it comes to hand reading against them, you can assume they will call you preflop with relatively reasonable ranges.
And if they keep calling you post flop, this usually means they connected with the flop in some way.
But this will usually mean a mediocre or a drawing hand, so consider applying the pressure on future streets, especially on safe board runouts.
Hand Reading vs Tight and Aggressive Players
Tight and aggressive players will play reasonable ranges preflop, and they will also be aware of their table position.
This means they will gradually expand their open-raising ranges as they get closer to the button.
Hand reading against them can prove challenging, as they will usually be competent players who are able to balance their ranges.
But they’re still likely to have a few leaks in their game if you know what to look for.
For example, some TAG players may play too straightforwardly, so they may refrain from bluffing too much.
Or they may c-bet the flop with a wide range, but only keep betting on the turn if they have a very strong hand.
This means you’ll need to use your observational skills when playing against them.
But generally, you still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially when they make big raises on big money streets (turn and river).
Aggressive Actions Drastically Narrow Down Your Opponent’s Range
As a general rule, the more aggressive your opponent’s actions, the narrower their range and vice versa.
Continuing with the funnel analogy, think of aggressive actions as filters that narrow down your opponent’s range.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course.
One of the exceptions is the so-called range bet.
To range bet means to bet 100% of the time with your entire range.
For example, let’s say you open-raise UTG and see the following flop: K62
This board favours your open-raising range, as it contains a lot of Kx hands like AK, KK, KQ and so on.
The board is also very dry, so it’s unlikely your opponent connected with it in some meaningful way.
So it makes sense to c-bet this flop 100% of the time with your entire range, regardless of whether or not you connected with the flop.
This means you would c-bet with all your broadways, pocket pairs, suited Aces, suited connectors etc.
In this situation, your range does not get narrower after you make a bet.
But most players won’t bet their entire range in most situations, so you can usually narrow it down after they make aggressive actions like betting or raising.
Again, the more aggressive the actions, the narrower the range.
You should also be on the lookout for range-capping actions (i.e. checking and calling).
For example, if your opponent fails to make a bet when given the opportunity, you can eliminate hands they would likely bet with.
Again, let’s say the flop is K62 and your opponent does not make a c-bet when given the opportunity.
This is a range-capping action, because they would probably c-bet with top pair hands like AK, KQ and so on.
Granted, your opponent may still slowplay their nutted hands like sets, so these hands still theoretically remain in their range.
Here’s another important rule when narrowing down your opponent’s range:
If you’ve eliminated a certain hand from your opponent’s range, you can’t include it in their range again as the hand progresses.
This may sound confusing, so again, let’s use an example.
Same flop, K62
If you think your opponent wouldn’t open-raise pocket Twos UTG, you can’t include pocket Twos as part of their range when you see the flop.
The funnel can only get narrower as the hand progresses, it can never get wider.
Keeping this rule in mind will help you prevent the so-called “monsters under the bed” syndrome.
A lot of players make the mistake of missing a value bet because they see a scary river card, for example.
Then they rationalize it by saying their opponent could have a certain monster hand that beats them.
But if you’ve already excluded certain hand combinations, you can’t add them in after the fact.
Pay Attention to Betting Patterns
Another thing to watch out for is your opponent’s betting patterns.
Most players will give off their hand strength based on their bet sizing.
This only applies to weaker players, as decent players will either mix up their bet sizing, or they will use balanced bet sizing so they don’t give off their hand strength.
But most players at the lower stakes will usually give off tells based on their bet sizing.
For example, a small bet sizing may indicate a bluff, while big bet sizing may indicate a strong hand.
Again, recreational players are more likely to give off their hand strength based on certain bet sizing.
So you should use bet sizing in correlation with their overall player type to get an accurate read on their hand strength.
Pay Attention to Their Showdown Hands
Finally, one of the best sources of information is going to be your opponent’s showdown hands.
For example, if you see a player routinely getting to showdown with weak or marginal hands, you can assume they play relatively wide ranges.
Conversely, if you see your opponent only getting to showdown with very strong hands, they are probably playing tight ranges on average.
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