Heh.. I would like for someone to try and explain to me how to start thinking about hand ranges in terms of combinations of hands.. Since I completely don't know how to do it my next example of what I want to learn is probably WAAAAAY off:
if I have AJ and there's JK7 flop villain can have 2 combos of AK, 2 combos of something else, 5 combos of etc. etc. I have so many combos of my hand - he has so many.. I am in front 56 to 33 combos so I don't fold/shove over his raise on flop... etc. etc.

The thing is, I am a total n00b at this and don't know where to look for information on this in order to educate myself so I came here crying and hoping someone will help me..

If someone knows a good read that provides this information I would appreciate it if you would post it here (link, name of the text, something)..

In fact, any information regarding this is much appreciated..

Thank you

Umm. Just look at how many possible combinations there are.

Hmm, that didn't help. Let's just start with pre flop.

Some guy raises to $57. You have played 1,000,000 hands with him and have a sick read that tells you he only raises to $57 pre flop with AA and AKo. You want to know how often he has which hand (in other words, how many combinations there are of each).

Well let's do AA.

He can have:








Six combinations.

For AK he can have:














Twelve combinations.

He is twice as likely to have AK as he is AA.

Then for after the flop you do the same thing, but if you want to see how many sets of fives he can have (for example) you simply make only combinations that don't contain whatever 5 is on the flop (because he obviously can't have that in his hand).

It gets much more fun when you think that he can have hands X, Y, and Z, but he only plays Y like this 50% of the time, and Z 75% of the time, while X he ALWAYS plays like this, and your equity vs. each hand is different, and there's different numbers of combos of each.

poker.

Just take the amount of the unseen cards and multiply them together. If you think he has AK PF. There are 4 Aces and 4 kings = 16 combos. If you have a KK, There is only 8 combos (4 Aces x 2 Kings). If the flop comes A62. There is only 6 ways (3 Aces x 2 Kings).

SO If his range is JJ+,AJ+. It is as follows:

JJ: 6 ways

QQ: 6 ways

KK: 1 way

AA:3 ways

AK: 6 ways

AQ: 16 ways

AJ: 16 ways

So there are 13 possible hands that hated that flop, and 41 hands that liked it. So he is 3x more likley to have iliked it than hated. So its maybe not the best flop to be trying anything, No lets take a J62 flop with the same range;


JJ: 3 ways

QQ: 6 ways

KK: 1 way

AA: 6 ways

AK: 8 ways

AQ: 16 ways

AJ: 12 ways


So here he has 24 hands that hated it and 28 thats liked it. So its about 50/50, This "may" bet a bit better. If his range is only AQ+ then adjust.

It may be confusing but it does help to learn (This is new to me as well)