How to memorize poker ranges

Learn where each range ends

A range is a block of strong hands with a border of weaker ones. You already know to raise aces. What you have to remember is where each kind of hand stops.

Range notation writes down exactly that. With 40 big blinds the solver opens this range under the gun:

55+, A3s+, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, ATo+, KJo+

That is 8 entries, and each is one border: the lowest pair, the lowest suited ace, the lowest suited king and so on. Remember them and you can redraw the whole chart.

Start under the gun and add one seat at a time

Opening ranges come first, because every other spot begins with one. Learn the earliest seat, then move one seat later. At 40bb each seat from under the gun to the button opens every hand the seat before it opens, and adds some. So each new chart is a short list of additions.

From the 40bb charts. The small blind is left out: it limps as well as raises, and is learned on its own.

Then the big blind, then 3-bets

After the opening ranges, learn to defend the big blind. You are in it once an orbit whatever your cards, and it faces a raise more often than any other seat. Against a button open with 40 big blinds the solver 3-bets 12%, calls 78% and folds 10%.

Leave 3-bets for third. They come up less often, and they are easier once the opening ranges are solid: a 3-bet range is the strongest hands plus a few chosen as bluffs. Against a cutoff open the button 3-bets 11% of hands.

Big blind defense chart at 40bb3-bet ranges at 40bb

Test yourself instead of rereading

Looking at a chart feels like learning, and most of it is gone the next day. Being asked what to do with K9s in the hijack, answering, and then seeing the chart is what makes it stay. Recalling an answer strengthens it more than reading it again.

A flashcard works this way. So does a trainer that deals you a hand in a spot and waits for your play.

Bring back the hands you miss

Review a hand you got wrong soon, and a hand you got right later. That takes less time than going over everything equally, because the effort goes where the mistakes are.

The trainer here does it for you: a hand you miss comes back sooner, and the costly misses come back first.

Let the cost of a mistake set your priorities

Mistakes are not equal. Folding a hand the chart raises half the time costs almost nothing. Folding a hand it always raises gives up chips every time that hand comes round.

So leave the splits alone. Play each split hand the way the chart plays it most often, and spend your effort on the hands that are always one play. The trainer prices every answer in big blinds, which shows you which mistakes are worth fixing.

A little on most days

Short sessions on most days hold better than one long session a week, because each session is another round of recall after a gap.

The trainer's daily goal starts at 50 hands and counts the days in a row you reach it.

An order to work through

1. The opening ranges at the stack depth you play most, under the gun first.
2. The small blind and the big blind at that depth.
3. Facing an open: what each seat 3-bets and what it calls.
4. A second stack depth. Most of it carries over, so you are learning the differences.
5. Push/fold at 10bb and 15bb, for when the stack gets short.

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