A Monkey's guide to knitting... err... pre-flop ranges (no blind defense)
Play these ranges if no one has opened the betting before you.
UTG (4%): 99+,AQs+,AKo
UTG+1 (6%): 88+,ATs+,KQs,AQo+
MP1 (8%): 88+,ATs+,KTs+,AJo+
MP2 (10%): 55+,AJs+,KJs+,QJs,AJo+,KQo
HJ (15%): 22+, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KJo+, QJo
CO (20%): 22+,A2s+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,76s,65s,ATo+,KJ o+,QJo,JTo
BTN (40%): 22+,A2s+,K2s+,Q7s+,J8s+,T7s+,96s+,85s+,74s+,64s+,5 3s+,A2o+,KTo+,QTo+,J9o+,T9o,98o,87o
Disclaimer: These are very nitty ranges.
Undisclaimer: Straying more than a few %-age points from the EP and MP ranges is spew no matter where you're playing.
A beginner who is just learning about positional ranges will benefit greatly by playing at least a few thousand hands with these suggestions. Learn the discipline to play this tight in EP. Learn how much easier it is to play those drawing hands in position post-flop.
Notice you can fold 22-88 and A2o-AQo from UTG. There are so many player left to act pre. You have no idea where anyone is, yet. You gotta be strong to take on 8 potential opponents.
Notice the exponential growth in playable hands the fewer opponents are acting behind you post-flop. Every limp/fold is telling you more and more about where you are in the hand, and leaving fewer opponents to beat.
Notice how half your BTN range is basically blind steals that can occasionally flop something.
Open to at least 3x + 1 big blind for each limper. If you know that it's about 100% likely at least 1 person will limp almost every pot, then open with 4x from UTG, UTG+1. You really want to face 1 villain when you're opening from EP.
What about ranges for when someone opens before you?
Well, they're certainly not wider than your opening ranges.
For EP and MP, you are probably good to go ahead and call reasonable PRE-flop action and see the flop with your entire opening range. By reasonable, I mean call a 3-bet, but if there are 4-bets going on, or someone just shoves for no reason, then you can fold. Never fold KK+,AKs. Probably QQ, but it depends on the dead money in the pot if someone donk-shoves.
Tighten up the HJ, CO and BTN a bit. Play it by feel. You're not starting from scratch. You've got a poker gut already. You've got reads on these villains, and you're likely in position. You got this.
Once you've played these ranges for a bit, you'll start to get a gut feeling for what %-age of hands feel like what. This is huge for helping you put Villains on ranges. You can attach how their range feels to specific %-ages after a while, and visualize those range charts on the fly.
It takes a while. I may be biased because I'm a visual thinker.
