Poker is a fascinating pastime. To some, it’s nothing more than a game, but to others, it’s a carefully considered art form that relies on a perfect balance of luck, skill, and strategy. It’s a game that has existed for over a century and still incites passionate debate: Is it primarily governed by chance or skill?

Many believe that knowing how to win poker tournaments is all about skill, but there’s undoubtedly a modicum of both luck and skill involved in any poker game – online or in person. No matter where you fall in the poker luck vs skill debate, though, hand reading can be profitable in many poker situations. We’ve put together a quick guide to help you get the competitive edge.

Understanding the Roles of Luck and Skill in Poker

As a poker beginner (or a “fish”, as beginners are often called), it’s encouraging to know that whether you’re playing poker online or on the felt, you aren’t completely at the mercy of the poker gods. Once you start learning about some of the skills involved in the game, like poker hand reading and ranges, you’ll know that the answer to the famous question – “Is poker mostly luck or skill?” – is skill. You’ll be able to cultivate those skills over time with patience, practice, and the powers of deduction.

If you’re looking for poker tips to strengthen your game and would like to know how to win real money during online poker, then you need to learn how to master the art of hand reading, a must-have skill for both live and online poker games.

What is Poker Hand Reading?

Hand reading, or hand ranging, is widely regarded as the number one poker skill and refers to the process of determining the possible combinations of cards (or range) an opponent is holding. It isn’t about trying to figure out exactly what your opponent’s hand is — that’s virtually impossible — but it’s about calculating the possibilities and probabilities. Once you have an idea of what range your opponent might be holding, you can make educated guesses about how they might play. Based on this information, you’ll then be able to calculate how best to play your hand.

Reading an opponent in real life is often easier than when playing poker online. When you’re sitting at a table with someone, you can pick up on physical tells. But by having a firm understanding of the rules of the game, carefully observing your opponent’s behavior, and using that information to make educated guesses, you’ll figure out quite quickly how to win more hands than you lose. 

As a fish, you might be inclined to try online poker just to get a feel for how it works. Without knowing too many of the poker tips and tricks, you might react in a game based solely on your hand and the cards on the board. But by doing this, you aren’t making the most of the information available to you.

A professional player considers all possibilities as well as what type of player their opponent is, their position at the table, the actions they’ve already taken, stack sizes, pot size, possible future cards, tournament conditions, and many other data points. This informs preflop poker strategy, postflop strategy, and turn and river decisions.

Don’t be overwhelmed by that information, however. The basic principle of poker hand reading is simple: The more information you can garner about your opponents and how they play at each stage of a game, the better informed your decisions can be, and the greater your chances of winning.

The Process Starts Preflop

So where do you start? After playing a few rounds with an opponent, you’ll start noticing certain patterns about how they play. These will help you determine what type of player your opponent is, in other words, are they loose or tight? A loose player is someone who plays a wide range of hands, regardless of their strength. A tight player is known to fold more often than they play and tends to have smaller ranges if they stay in the game.

Once you understand the type of player you’re up against, you’ve already got one bit of information you can use to better calculate their range. The hand reading process starts with preflop play, and poker ranges get smaller with each stage of betting as you move through the streets (in other words, as you move toward the river).

There are a few other things you can ask yourself when developing preflop poker strategies. Here are some of them: 

• Why did they take that certain action? (Why did they call and not raise/fold?)
• What does that action tell me about their possible range? (Was it confident or passive?)
• And what ranges can we eliminate based on that? Strong hands don’t lead to passive actions, so maybe some of the stronger hands can be taken out of the equation. 
• Have you played against your opponent before? If so, what do you know about them and their actions that can be helpful?

One of the most basic poker tips is to ensure that you’re able to quickly familiarize yourself with the community cards and the types of hands in poker. You want to be able to immediately figure out the best possible hands on any given deal. Once you’ve honed that skill, the next step is to determine how likely your opponent is to have any of those combinations.

To narrow down the range an opponent might have, it helps to think of their hand being made up of pocket pairs, Broadway hands, aces, suited hands, and offsuit hands. With that in mind, ask yourself: What is the worst hand they could play, and what are a few good hands?

The Sizes of Your Opponent’s Bets Matter

When it comes to betting, observe closely. The size of your opponent’s bet can provide some valuable information. Bet sizing in poker is usually carefully analyzed by skilled players, so you need to try to determine the motivation behind your opponent’s decision. Do they raise preflop, then check postflop? If so, what does it mean? Generally, the larger the bet, the stronger the hand (and therefore, the range), so watch poker bet sizing carefully and make a note of these subtleties.

Reassess Your Opponent’s Range Through the Streets

Once you’ve established a preflop range, you’ll be better equipped to read your opponent’s hands through the streets. As the game unfolds, you’ll constantly have to reevaluate your opponent’s actions at each stage, which will help remove possible hands from the range based on the established opponent data. 

Remember, if you’re doing it right, ranges only ever get smaller, not bigger. Just keep watching their actions and ask yourself what hand they could be basing their decisions on. And take your time to master this skill, as range balancing in poker is something that takes time to learn.

Three Main Stages of the Hand Reading Process

To recap, this is what a distilled version of the hand reading process looks like for a game of poker:

• You deduce a preflop range based on your opponent’s first actions (regarding their initial bets). 
• As the game moves from flop to turn to river, you’re better able to narrow the range further based on your opponent’s actions. How? By taking away possible combinations that don’t fit with your opponent’s decisions.
• You then use the information you have on your opponent and their possible range to play your hand accordingly.

Hand Rankings and Probability

Of course, to read hands, you’ll need to have a thorough understanding of the hands themselves and their rankings. Below you’ll find the Texas hold’em hands ranked from best to worst:

Rank Hand	Name	Description	Probability	Combinations
1	Royal flush	Made out of a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, all of the same suit.	1 in 649, 737	4
2	Straight flush	Five cards of sequential value, all in the same suit.	1 in 72,193	36
3	Four of a kind	The same card in each of the four suits.	1 in 4,164	624
4	Full house	A pair plus three of a kind in the same hand.	1 in 693	3,744
5	Flush	Five cards in the same suit, not in numerical order.	1 in 508	5,108
6	Straight	Five cards in sequential numerical order, of varying suits.	1 in 253	10,200
7	Three of a kind	Three of one card and two non-paired cards.	1 in 46	54,912
8	Two pair	Two different pairings or sets of the same card in one hand.	1 in 20	123,552
9	One pair	A pairing of the same card.	1 in 1.36	1,098,240
10	High card	A hand with no matching cards. The highest card is your “best hand”.	1 in 0.99	1,302,540

Play the Best Online Poker at BetMGM

The better you are at hand reading, the higher your chances of winning. Initially, the concept might seem complicated, but it actually comes down to simple math. As you practice, you’ll learn more about how to calculate what range your opponent has. It takes practice to make progress, and the more you do so, the more confident you’ll be.

So if you’re ready to start putting hand reading to the test at some online poker tables, you can play poker for real money by establishing an online poker account at BetMGM, one of the most reputable and trusted names in the game. Simply sign up to play, make your initial deposit (using an online poker welcome bonus), and start developing your poker hand-reading skills and strategies.