Range
All the hands a player could plausibly hold given how they have played so far. Thinking in ranges rather than trying to guess one exact hand is the core of modern strategy.
Frequently asked questions
What is a range in poker?
The full set of hands a player could have, given their actions. Rather than guessing at one holding, you assign a range and work out how your hand performs against all of it.
Why think in ranges instead of guessing a hand?
Because you cannot see their cards, and a single guess is almost always wrong. A range is a statement about probabilities you can actually act on — and it tells you how often you are ahead, which is the only thing the decision needs.
How does a range narrow?
With every action. A preflop raise cuts it to the hands worth raising; a flop bet removes the hands that would check; a river call removes the hands that would fold. Reading the line as a whole, street by street, is the skill — any single action means little on its own.