Poker Hand Range Basic Guide

A convenient representation of all hands in the game of poker

The picture below represents every possible starting hand in the game of poker.
Pocket Pairs run diagonally from top left to bottom right (strongest to weakest).
Suited hand combinations are above this diagonal line, and offsuit hands are below this diagonal line.

The best cards are generally near the top left, and the worst cards are generally towards the bottom right.
The best cards or starting hand in poker is AA (Ace Ace) and the worst starting hand in poker is 72 offsuit.

Poker Hand Ranges

A poker hand range is the percentage of hands that a player plays with. If a player voluntarily enters pots with 40% of the cards they are dealt, they are said to have a 40% range (for VP$IP).
The 40% here refers to the top 40% of poker hands, they fold the remaining 60%.

A poker player has different ranges in different situations, for example, they may limp into an unraised pot with 40% of the cards they are dealt, but they may only call a preflop raise with 15% of the cards they are dealt, or 5% even.

Experiment with Poker Potjie by moving the hand range slider to get a sense of what cards are included in different hand ranges.
As you move the slider from 0% up to 100% the purple hand range selection will fill out from the top left corner towards the bottom right hand corner.

Then experiment by putting different cards that you like to play against different opponent hand ranges and see what your equity is.
Be sure to set the options for automatic equity calculations for ease of use.

Aside from equity the main idea of Poker Potjie is to see what kinds of opponent hand ranges hit different types of poker flops, turns and rivers.
This will give you an idea of whether you should try see a showdown or avoid a showdown against this opponent.

Bear in mind that you should use different hand ranges for your opponent at different times and some opponents are position aware, meaning they play a wider range of hands in later positions on the table. (LP, CO, BTN etc)

Commonly used Poker player hand range statistics

Acronym	Meaning	Example of a good time to use this statistic
VP$IP %	The % of hands the player puts money in the pot with	When the player limps in. (generally limp means just calling the blinds or calling a tiny raise)
CPFR %	The % of hands the player calls preflop raises with	When a player calls a preflop raise

The more hands you've seen your opponent play the more accurate these statistics will be. Generally 50 hands are considered a minimum for these kind of statistics to mean anything.

Examples:
Villain-X has a VP$IP of 50% and he has limped in before the flop. Now you can set his range in Poker Potjie at 50%.
Villain-Y has a CPFR of 20% and he has called a preflop raise. Now set his range to 20%.

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