Can you suggest resources for practicing reading hands? Not just for the biggest and most interesting hands that tend to get posted on twoplustwo, but for the more routine hands as well.

I know that when a tight player limp-re-raises from early position pre-flop, I know it's a huge pair 99% of the time. That read is automatic.

But most reads, even ones that probably should be automatic for me, are not. They need to become automatic for me to become a better player.

What I need is something like the textbook-style exercises in Harrington on Hold'em, except only about reading hands. e.g.

Then I'd try to figure it out and write down my thoughts.

Next, I'd want to compare to a "solutions manual", e.g.

I figure I'll do this slowly and manually. Gradually, more and more of the hand reading process will become automatic and I can do it in real-time (seconds) at the table instead of 20 minutes at home.

Does such a resource like this exist... for free? If not, what are the paid options?

Any other thoughts? How else might I get better at reading hands?

p.s. Sorry if this is not the right place for this post. Mods: feel free to move it.

Spend a few years playing (and inevitably losing money) at the lowest limit poker game. That will help you learn about player types which *might* help you define their ranges. Also, play omaha to get a better feel for changing board textures.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Would online limit hold'em work for this?

Is there any faster way to get a feel for those ranges?

Play and observe every hand that is dealt especially when you aren’t in the hand. Try to put players on at least the types of hands they have.

Though I try to do this, my brain is too slow and/or untrained enough to do this in real time, especially when ranges are wide. That's why I think I need to practice the slow version first, then as I get used to it, will be able to do this in real time.

I think I'm looking for more stuff kind of like this...

Take detailed notes on several hands per session. Wait 2 weeks and then review them. Practice putting the villain on a range based on their actions on every street. Use Andrew Brokos method of dividing hands into 3 types: monster, marginal, and air/draw. As the hand progresses your goal is to eliminate one or even two of the three categories from opponent’s range. Doing this repeatedly will help a lot I think.




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This sounds like a good idea.

Why, though, would he group air/draw together? Those seem drastically different to me.

That’s a good question. I’m guessing because, yes while they are very different in terms of equity, they are fundamentally the same in that they are worthless without improving. Thus a bet with air/draw is always a bluff (even if a semi-bluff), and needs fold equity to be valuable. Also I think it’s just easier on the brain to use 3 groups instead of 4.

I thought the same thing as you at first, but once I started grouping hands like this it started to make sense. To me anyway.


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Practice by solving hands in LLSNL.

If you can think logically through HH posted here, then the real thing would be rather easy.

Dowload and learn to use Flopzilla.

I'm not sure what happened to that last video that I posted, but it does not want to load on my computer.

This is sort of what I'm looking for, but more of a quiz format.

Daniel Negreanu clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJUqmBSfni0

What do you mean by "solving hands"?

Here are some ways I can see myself using Flopzilla.

• Memorizing pre-flop ranges. E.g. "The top 5% of hands are TT+ and KQ+."
• Memorizing the weighting of each of those ranges.
• Learning to adjust that street by street, so I know how often villains have monsters vs decent vs draw vs air.
• Learn card removal effects.

Are these the main ways one should use Flopzilla? Can you suggest others?

-See how your range hits boards
-See how villains range hits boards
-To see what hands you can use as value, bluffs, best bluff catchers
-To see equities on each street
They just came out with flopzilla pro
How to Read Hands at No-Limit Hold'em by ed miller
Hole Card Confessions: Hand-Reading and Exploitive Play in Hold'em by Owen Gaines are books that helped me out on getting the feel for hand reading
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I'm going to look for those books.

Thanks for the suggestions!

As for the board/hand/equity interactions, I'll probably start working on that after I can put people on reasonable ranges more easily.

Has anybody tried Sky Matsuhashi's "66 Days of Hand Reading"?

This seems to be roughly what I'm looking for. Lots of videos where you can pause and try to determine ranges.

A few thoughts on that series.

(1) It's WAY better to NOT know the result of the hand when trying to do hand reading practice... Luckily, he switches to that better approach part way through the series.

(2) Is this really what it takes to beat $0.25/$0.50 no limit hold'em games online these days? How much of this do you need to beat live 1/3 and 2/5 cash games?

50NL is pretty tough. Knowing this stuff will help.

Live 1/3 and 2/5 are still pretty soft; you can get away with playing tight ranges and c-bet grinding. Still, this stuff helps there too.

50NL is tough, huh? That's weird and kinda sad... been messing around at 5NL and players there seem to know about value vs polarized 3-betting ranges. Seems like they all spent 20 buy ins on Poker Tracker and another 100 buy ins on poker training websites... all to gamble for pennies.

I checked out some live 1/3 and 2/5 games and they're way TAGgier than I remember from a long time ago... Not as soft as you're describing. I hear all the action players have moved into home games in my city.

Really? It seems extremely soft everytime I play it.

I play on FTP/Poker Stars. Should I switch to Ignition?

Lucky you. I play Ignition because I don't have any other better options.
But I will say the cash games are very soft.

Do they offer rakeback?

And, more related to this thread: do they create hand histories that you can analyze with Poker Tracker or Hold'em Manager?

They have some sort of rewards system, but I don't know the details to be honest. But you do get points that you can convert to money.

Yes they have standard hand histories I'm pretty sure you can import into some software. But I don't use a HUD so I'm not 100% positive which one you can use.

I've been working on Flopzilla ranges and am somewhat confused by their hole card rankings.

For example, in the top 10% of hands, AJo is there but 44 is not.

https://imgur.com/a/mdUrwT3

(I don't know how to embed images in this post.)

How was this decided? Wouldn't you rather have 44 than AJo in a 5-way deep stacked pot going to the flop?