Hand Matrix Poker

• Poker Hand Matrix Excel
• Hand Matrix Poker Rules
• Hand Matrix Poker Strategy

For each hand, we call the matrix the strength matrix of that hand. Each column corresponds to a type of formation (1p, 2p, 3k, s, fl, fh, 4k). Each hand has an unique associated strength matrix, whose elements are calculable manually or by software program. A poker hand range calculator is a great tool to help make smarter decisions when playing for real money. Get in-depth knowledge of calculating hand ranges, equity, and combinations to improve poker strategies. The Poker-hand dataset happens to be extremely imbalanced, with the first two classes representing 90% of the samples, in both the training and testing set. A classifier that learns how to classify correctly these two-classes, but completely miss-classifies the remaining classes, will still achieve 90% accuracy in predictions.

Poker hands rankings are depending on the likelihood that you will get them.

As for identical poker hands, they rank depending on the player who has the highest values.

The player with the stronger hand decides which hand ranks better.

You can remember important poker hands through mnemonic.

It is a popular memory device used for poker games.

However, you should not just rely on a memory device to work your way through poker hands.

It is best you understand the basic principles to know your best move.

Read more: Poker Hand: Should You Have Favorites?

You cannot have a memory device giving you hints while playing on the table.

Here are some important tips to learn to understand poker hands better and increase your win rate.

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Lower Ranking Poker Hands

Take note that the 0, 1, 2 and 3 comprise the lowest poker hands.

Be careful when having these types of cards in your hand.

Remember that 0 is a high card. When you got 0 pairs, then the rank or value of your hand will rely on your highest card.

Your highest card determines the value or rank of your entire hand.

Do not forget that ace ranks the highest while 2 ranks the lowest.

Understand the following:

• One pair – this means you get two cards with similar value but with different suits. An example would be two of hearts and two of clubs.
• Two Pairs – this means you get two cards with similar value but under different suits. An example would be two of hearts with two of clubs and three of diamonds with three of spades.
• Three of a Kind – this means you get three cards with similar value but with different suits. An example would be four of diamonds with four of spades and four of clubs.

Separate Hands According to Straight

A straight hand can be categorized in between poker hand rankings.

It is not that high or low in the ranking.

As the name implies, you get a straight if you have five cards in any suit with consecutive values.

Related article: The 6 Best Poker Starting Hands You Must Know About

For instance, your straight hand may feature cards 2, 3, 4, 5, including 6. So long as you have them in order, the suit does not matter.

You have a straight.

You can also create a straight hand with a queen, jack, king, ace and 10 from any of the suits.

Understand the Highest-Ranking Poker Hands

Memorize the cards creating the highest-ranking poker hands.

You can better memorize if you count the numbers of letters of the hand’s name.

Take note of the following:

• 5: Flush – this means you get five cards under the same suit and of any value. For instance, you can form a flush with any of the cards under the suit of diamonds. Whether it would be 9, 7, 6, 2 and jack.
• 9: Full House – this means you have three of a kind and a one pair
• 11: Four of a Kind – this comes with four cards with a similar value under the four suits. For example, 8 of hearts, 8 of diamonds, 8 of spades and 8 of clubs.
• 13: Straight Flush – this comes with five cards under the same suit and in consecutive values. For instance, you can form a straight flush with 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of spades.
• 18: Royal Straight Flush – you can form a royal straight flush using an ace for the high card including 10, jack, queen, king and ace of spades. This hand is unbeatable.

High Card

Given a hand cannot be considered in any category then the card with the highest value will decide its rank.

For instance, if the set of cards got the Queen as the highest, then the hand ranks in relation to the queen.

If another player has a similar card then you get the second highest, if not then the third, fourth or even fifth will be considered.

This may be confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it once exposed to some high card situations.

Community Cards

As mentioned in the previous sections, a poker hand consists of five cards.

Depending on their variations, you can reach a certain position or advantage over other players on the table.

The five cards will come from what you have been dealt with or what you have chosen.

For instance, under Texas Hold’em, every player will get two private cards.

However, they can also choose from five community cards.

All players are given the same access. To an extent, all players get equal opportunities at creating a strong hand.

All in all, you can work with seven cards, but you can only choose the five best cards to proceed with the game.

If you are new to poker, then you have to read through the list again.

You cannot get a good grasp of all the rankings unless you go through the list repeatedly.

It also helps to do practice games so you will become familiarized with the hands naturally and slowly. Nothing beats knowing the hands or card arrangements by heart.

You don’t want to miss this: Top 10 Best Poker Books Every Poker Addict Should Read

You need to study the type of poker game you are playing.

Some poker games assign different values to hands.

On others, it might be different which hands decide the winner.

You will understand the real value or strength of the cards as you play along. If possible, play as many variations as you can.

final word

This can help you master how to create and manipulate cards whenever you can.

There are also many cheat sheets or PDF listings you can access to download hand rankings and images.

It can be helpful to memorize the hands if you can see pictures attributed to the rankings.

Some people are visual creatures.

They learn better from what they see. It may do the trick for you.

Go through your chart constantly.

These are just some of the ways you can improve your poker game.

Take some time to master them before taking other lessons.

It’s incredibly difficult to put your opponent on an exact hand. Therefore, most of the time, you have to think in terms of poker hand ranges. Even though you don’t have a specific idea of what cards are in your opponent’s hand, a hand range gives you something to work with.

Beginners may not have thought of this, but winning players make almost all their decisions based on poker hand ranges and knowing the different types of poker hands you might get is extremely important. Your every action changes an opponent’s idea of your hand range and vice-versa. You can have anything when cards are dealt but every fold, call or raise tells something about the range of hands you can have.

Most players fail to make the effort to figure out a hand range. However, every player who intends to be a long-term winner needs to know how to analyze and weight hand ranges.

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Poker Hand Combinations

How to use a poker range calculator? In order to be able to calculate a range of hands, the first thing you need to keep in mind is how many possible hand combinations there are for different types of hands:

So what does the table tell you?

• There are more variations of non-paired hands than pocket pairs.
  For example, if you think an opponent’s hand range is 44 and 87, it’s more likely for the opponent to have 87 (16 combinations) than 44 (six combinations).
• There are four combinations of suited non-paired hands and 12 combinations of off-suited non-paired hands. Knowing this makes it easier to calculate the likelihood of an opponent having a suited hand.

Using Hand Ranges in Poker

Here’s a scenario: you raise with AK-offsuit pre-flop and the opponent calls. You know the opponent calls in this situation 15% of the time. According to Equilab, here’s the top 15% of poker hands (although someone’s 15% can include different hands–for example, one might play 66 rather than KT-offsuit):

You have AK-offsuit, and you’d like to figure out how your hand matches up against the opponent’s hand range. So you use Equilab to calculate it and you see that AK-offsuit has 61.36% equity while the opponent has 38.64%. Sounds like a good deal for you.

Most players assume they’d do well but they have never thought their opponent’s hand range through and evaluated it against their own hand. Once you get the habit of using an equity calculator, you’ll be surprised by how much or little equity certain hands have against certain hand ranges.

Your idea of an opponent’s hand range changes with every decision the opponent makes. So let’s say, instead of calling your raise, the opponent decides to raise, which he does 3.75% of the time. Here’s the hand range:

Based on the opponent’s hand range, he’d now have ~57% equity. When he just calls, you’re still ahead of his hand range; when he re-raises, your AK-offsuit is in trouble.

Poker Hand Matrix Excel

Weighted Hand Ranges

But an opponent may play certain hands out of his hand range more often than others. For example, instead of re-raising 100% of the time with 99, he may only do so 50% of the time. Based on your reads, you assign more or less weight to a certain hand in a range of hands and, just like before, calculate how your hand does against it.

And it can make a big difference. For example, an opponent’s hand range is AA and QQ while you have KK. In case the opponent plays both AA and QQ 100% of the time in that situation, you might consider your chances of winning poker around 50%, but if the opponent plays AA 100% of the time and only plays QQ some other % of the time, your chances of winning take a hit. You’d be going against AA the majority of the time.

How to Calculate a Weighted Hand Range

So let’s say you have JJ pre-flop and you’re up against an all-in raise. You think the opponent could do this with AA, KK, QQ, AK, and AQ. How many hand combinations do you beat and how many beat you?

Hand combinations that beat you:

Hand combinations that you beat:

You beat 32 of your opponent’s hand combinations and the opponent beats you with 18 combinations. By using Equilab, we can see that your equity is 42.60%. If, however, the opponent only has AK and AQ 50% of the time (which is a relatively realistic scenario), here’s what happens:

Hand combinations that beat you v2:

Hand combinations that you beat v2:

And by using Equilab, we can see that our equity drops to about 36%. That’s a dramatic difference in the long run. which can make the difference between whether you should call or fold, which obviously depends on pot and bet sizes and how much money you and your opponent have left.

Learning to weight poker hand ranges is worth your while. Weighting hand ranges gives you more accurate information about your chances in different poker situations as long as you determine the hand combinations right. Like in almost every skill game in the world, the more complicated a theory is, the harder it is to execute and the more profitable it is when executed perfectly. With a little bit of work and thinking you’ll get more accurate calculations.

How to Manipulate Hand Ranges

The basic idea of manipulating hand ranges is To make strong hands look weak and the other way around. This way we can get the most out of our hands because either the opponent likes to call when we’ve got a tight range of hands – meaning we can get the money in with a strong hand – or the opponent likes to fold when we’ve got a loose range, meaning we can get the opponent to fold when we have a weak hand.

One of the biggest problems is to recognize what strong and weak play is in an opponent’s opinion. Obviously Lisa and Bart are going to read situations differently and they’re going to end up having different ideas of who’s weak and who isn’t. Another problem is to know who’s been paying attention to the game and who has other things to focus on. You have to rely on the idea that the opponent follows the game at least semi-closely and adjusts his play optimally against your range of hands. Usually it’s easy to tell who’s following the game, though.

The third problem would be to understand how an opponent reacts to the way you play. There are different ways for players to react, obviously, since otherwise all the players would play the same way. Some make logical decisions, some don’t.

All of these points must be taken into consideration when manipulating hand ranges in poker. It’s of no use to build an image for yourself if the opponent pays no attention to the game. It might be counterproductive to build an image if the opponent reacts unlike you expected. You’ll always have to consider these points when building a player image and manipulating your range.

Common Mistakes – Being Optimistic

The biggest mistake when figuring out a hand range is to have too much optimism when making decisions. For example, always believing the best and creating hand ranges that are convenient for you is a huge mistake and misses the whole idea. It’s not just about winning; it’s also about losing the least possible. By realizing your hand range is unprofitable against an opponent’s hand range, you avoid losing money.

Giving Up

Losing is a part of poker and beating most of an opponent’s range doesn’t mean you’ll win all of the pots. You’ll lose a certain percentage of them, and you may even have an extremely unlikely run of losses but such is variance.

Hand Matrix Poker Rules

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