Preflop Charts

Preflop Range Basics

Learn how pairs, suited hands, offsuit hands, broadways, suited connectors, and suited aces fit into preflop range thinking.

Beginner8 min readStatic public lesson

Lesson Overview

A preflop range is the group of hands you choose to play from a position in a specific situation. Good range study is not about memorizing every combo at once. It starts with understanding hand classes and why some hands perform better than others.

Key Concepts

Pairs can make strong sets and often have clear value, especially high pairs like QQ, KK, and AA.
Suited hands can make flushes and often realize equity better than offsuit versions.
Broadway hands like AK, AQ, KQ, and QJ can make strong top pairs and strong draws.
Suited connectors can make straights and flushes, but they depend heavily on position, stack depth, and price.
Weak offsuit hands such as K7o or Q4o are usually poor early-position opens because they are dominated and hard to realize equity with.

Practical Example: AKo, QQ, and a weak offsuit hand

AKo is strong because it blocks AA and KK and makes top pair with top kicker often. QQ is strong because it is already a premium made hand. K7o is much weaker from early position because when it makes one pair, it is often dominated by better kings.

Common Mistake

Copying a button range into early position

BTN can usually open wider than UTG because only two blinds remain and BTN has postflop position. UTG must be tighter because the whole table can still respond.

Study Takeaway

Start range study by grouping hands. Premium pairs, strong broadways, suited aces, and playable suited connectors each behave differently depending on position and stack depth.

This is static public education content. It is not gambling advice, financial advice, a guaranteed strategy, or real-time assistance. Exact poker decisions depend on position, stack depth, antes, ICM, table dynamics, and opponent tendencies.

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