How to Build Poker Ranges: The Step-by-Step Guide to Playing Fewer Hands and Winning More

If you've ever been told "you're playing too many hands" or "tighten up your ranges," you've heard the most common advice in poker. But nobody explains HOW to actually build those ranges. What hands should you open from the cutoff at 30bb? What do you 3-bet from the small blind against a hijack open? What do you defend in the big blind facing a min-raise?

This guide gives you a concrete method to build, organize, and practice your preflop ranges — the foundation that every other decision in your game is built on. We'll also show how GrindLab's Range Manager makes this process visual, organized, and repeatable.

What Is a Range in Poker?

A range is the set of hands you play in a specific situation. Instead of thinking "I have AJ, should I raise?", range-based thinking asks "what is every hand I would raise here, and is AJ in that set?"

Every situation in poker has a range: your opening range from each position, your 3-betting range against each position, your calling range in the big blind, your continuation betting range on different board textures. The list is long, but the principle is simple: you're not making isolated decisions with individual hands — you're executing a strategy that applies to all 169 possible starting hands.

Why does this matter? Because opponents who play individual hands are predictable. If someone only raises with premium hands, you know to fold when they raise. But if someone plays a well-constructed range, it's much harder to read them — because the same raise could be AA or 76s depending on the spot.

The 13×13 Hand Matrix

Every Texas Hold'em starting hand can be represented on a 13×13 grid. Here's how it works:

• Pairs run along the diagonal from top-left (AA) to bottom-right (22).
• Suited hands are above the diagonal. For example, AKs (Ace-King suited) is in the top row, second column.
• Offsuit hands are below the diagonal. AKo (Ace-King offsuit) is in the second row, first column.

This grid has 169 cells representing all unique starting hand combinations. When you "build a range," you're selecting which cells belong in your range for a given spot.

In GrindLab's Range Manager, you build ranges by clicking hands on this exact grid. Selected hands light up, and you see the total percentage of hands in your range update in real time.

Step 1: Understand Position

Position is the single biggest factor determining your range. The later you act, the wider you can play. Why? Because there are fewer players left to act behind you, which means less chance of running into a strong hand.

Here's the general hierarchy from tightest to widest:

UTG (Under the Gun): Tightest range. You have 5-8 players still to act. Only strong hands.

Hijack (HJ): Slightly wider than UTG. You can start adding more suited connectors and suited aces.

Cutoff (CO): A significant step wider. This is where your range starts to include medium-strength hands like suited one-gappers and lower broadways.

Button (BTN): The widest opening range at the table. You have position postflop against the blinds, which gives every hand more value.

Small Blind (SB): Tricky position. You have to put in money but will be out of position postflop. Your range is often either tight (raising) or wide (completing against passive big blinds).

Big Blind (BB): Your range is defined by what you defend against raises. Since you already have money in the pot, you can profitably defend a wide range.

Step 2: Build Your Opening Ranges

Let's build an opening range for each position in a typical 6-max game at 40-60bb effective stacks. These are starting points — you'll adjust them based on your opponents and table dynamics.

UTG Opening Range (~15% of hands)

The core: AA-66, AKs-ATs, KQs-KJs, QJs, JTs, AKo-AJo, KQo.

You're playing primarily premium pairs, strong broadways, and a few suited connectors for board coverage. This is a tight, strong range that performs well even when facing 3-bets.

HJ Opening Range (~18% of hands)

Add: 55-44, A9s-A8s, KTs, QTs, T9s, 98s, ATo, KJo.

The hijack opens up slightly. You're adding more suited aces (which have nut flush potential) and suited connectors that can make straights and flushes.

CO Opening Range (~25% of hands)

Add: 33-22, A7s-A2s, K9s-K7s, Q9s, J9s, 87s, 76s, 65s, A9o, KTo, QJo.

The cutoff is where your range gets noticeably wider. Suited aces down to A2s are all playable. More suited connectors and one-gappers enter.

BTN Opening Range (~35-40% of hands)

Add: K6s-K2s, Q8s-Q6s, J8s-J7s, T8s, 97s, 86s, 75s, 54s, A8o-A2o, K9o, Q9o-QTo, J9o-JTo, T9o.

The button is where you open the widest. Any suited ace, most suited connectors, most suited kings, and a wide range of offsuit broadways are all profitable opens because of your positional advantage.

SB Opening Range (varies significantly)

From the small blind, you're either raising or folding (limping is generally a leak in most games). Your raising range is similar to the cutoff but slightly adjusted because you'll always be out of position postflop against the big blind.

BB Defense Range (vs min-raise, ~40-55%)

In the big blind, you're getting a great price to call raises. Against a min-raise, you're often getting 3.5:1 or better odds, which means you can defend with a very wide range. The exact range depends heavily on who's raising and from what position.

Step 3: Adjust for Stack Depth

The ranges above assume 40-60bb effective stacks. Stack depth changes everything:

Deep stacked (100bb+): Speculative hands (suited connectors, small pairs) gain value because the implied odds are better. You can afford to invest a small amount preflop for the chance to win a big pot when you flop a set or a straight.

Short stacked (20-30bb): Speculative hands lose value. You don't have enough chips behind to get paid when you hit. Instead, high-card hands (Ax, Kx, broadways) and pairs gain relative value because you're often going all-in preflop or on the flop.

Very short (10-15bb): Your strategy simplifies to shove-or-fold in many positions. Ranges become much wider for shoving (especially from late positions) and much tighter for calling shoves.

This is why GrindLab's Range Manager lets you tag each range with a stack depth. Your BTN opening range at 50bb is different from your BTN opening range at 20bb. Saving both in your library means you always know what to do.

Step 4: Adjust for Opponents

This is where the standard charts stop and exploitation begins.

Against tight players (nits): Widen your opening ranges because they fold more. Tighten your calling ranges against their raises because they're only raising with strong hands.

Against loose players (fish/recreationals): You can tighten your opening range slightly (they're not folding anyway, so stealing the blinds is less valuable) but widen your value range postflop. When they call your raises with weak hands, your strong hands make more money.

Against aggressive 3-bettors: Tighten your opening range from positions that face a lot of 3-bets, or add more hands that play well against 3-bets (suited aces, medium pairs that can set-mine).

In GrindLab, you can save opponent-specific ranges as player profiles and use them directly in the Equity Engine when analyzing hands. This creates a direct bridge between your range construction and your hand analysis.

Step 5: Organize Your Range Library

Building ranges once is useful. Organizing them into a library that you can access, update, and practice is what turns knowledge into results.

A well-organized range library looks like this:

By game type: MTT ranges and cash game ranges are different because of stack depth dynamics and ICM considerations. Keep them separate.

By position: Each position (UTG, HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB) has its own set of ranges.

By situation: For each position, you might have: open range, vs 3-bet range, 3-bet range against each position, squeeze range, etc.

By stack depth: Especially for tournaments, where your stack changes throughout the event. A BTN open at 50bb is different from a BTN open at 20bb is different from a BTN shove at 12bb.

GrindLab's Range Manager organizes all of this in a visual library with tabs for game type (MTT, Cash, SNG) and sortable by position. Each range is labeled and instantly accessible.

Step 6: Practice Until It's Automatic

The final step is the most important and the most overlooked. Knowing your ranges intellectually is worthless if you can't execute them under time pressure with 12 tables open.

Method 1 — Self-drill. Open your range in GrindLab, look at a random starting hand, and decide in 2 seconds: is this in my range for this position? Check. Repeat 50 times.

Method 2 — Post-session review. After every session, pick 5 preflop decisions and check them against your saved ranges. Did you deviate? Why?

Method 3 — Range audit. Once a month, review one position completely. Look at your actual played hands (from your tracker) and compare them to your saved range. Are you playing hands outside your range? Are you folding hands that should be in your range?

Common Range-Building Mistakes

Mistake 1: Building ranges that are too wide from early position. UTG is not the button. Opening K9o from UTG at a full table is lighting money on fire.

Mistake 2: Ignoring position entirely. Some players play the same range from every position. This leaves massive value on the table. Position is the single biggest factor in preflop range construction.

Mistake 3: Never updating ranges. Your ranges should evolve as you study, move up in stakes, and face different opponents. A range you built 6 months ago might not reflect your current understanding.

Mistake 4: Building ranges but never practicing them. A range that lives in a spreadsheet but doesn't live in your muscle memory isn't helping you at the table.

Mistake 5: Copying someone else's ranges without understanding why. Downloading a pro's ranges is fine as a starting point, but if you don't understand why each hand is included, you won't be able to adapt when the situation calls for it.

Key Takeaways

• A range is the complete set of hands you play in a specific situation. Thinking in ranges — not individual hands — is the foundation of good poker.
• Position is the most important factor. Late position = wider ranges. Early position = tighter ranges.
• Stack depth matters. Deep = speculative hands gain value. Short = high-card hands and pairs gain value.
• Adjust for opponents. Widen against nits, tighten value ranges against fish, adapt to aggressive 3-bettors.
• Organize your ranges in a library by game type, position, situation, and stack depth.
• Practice until execution is automatic. The best ranges in the world are useless if you can't execute them in real time.

Build and organize your poker ranges visually with GrindLab's Range Manager — free during the open beta.