What is the fastest way to memorize preflop ranges?
Learn where each range ends, not every hand inside it, and test yourself instead of rereading the chart. Four steps cover most of it:
- Memorize the edges. For each seat, learn the last hand it opens in each row: the weakest offsuit ace, the weakest suited king, and so on. Everything above the edge is in.
- Learn one seat at a time, from under the gun to the button. Each later range is the one before it plus a few rows of additions.
- Drill the hands whose answer changes. Ace-five suited, king-jack suited and pocket jacks are a raise in one spot and a fold or a call in the next. Those are the ones that slip.
- Space your reviews. Answer from memory, check, and bring back the hands you missed a day or a few days later.
Which hands mark the edge of each opening range?
These are the last hands each seat raises at least half the time, row by row, in the ranges PlusEV drills (6-max cash, 100 big blinds):
| Row | Under the gun | Hijack | Cutoff | Button |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suited aces | A3s | A2s | A2s | A2s |
| Offsuit aces | ATo | ATo | A8o | A4o |
| Suited kings | K6s | K5s | K4s | K2s |
| Offsuit kings | KJo | KTo | KTo | K9o |
| Suited queens | Q9s | Q9s | Q6s | Q4s |
| Offsuit queens | none | QTo | QTo | Q9o |
| Suited jacks | J9s | J9s | J8s | J5s |
| Offsuit jacks | none | none | JTo | J9o |
| Suited tens | T9s | T8s | T7s | T5s |
| Offsuit tens | none | none | none | T8o |
Read a cell as “this hand and everything above it in the row”. Under the gun opens ATo, AJo, AQo and AKo; the button opens every offsuit ace down to A4o. Two cells have a gap, a hand above the edge that is raised less than half the time: K7s under the gun and Q7s in the cutoff. Pairs and suited connectors follow their own pattern, covered in the pocket pairs guide and the Texas Hold’em charts.
That is about 40 facts for four seats, against 676 cells on four full charts. The most-upvoted answer in the Reddit thread that ranks for this question says the same thing: remember the worst hand of each type for each position. The edges also explain why the ranges nest. Every hand under the gun opens, the hijack opens too, and the hijack adds 66 combos on top. The cutoff adds 84 more and the button 156 more (counted in poker combos, the exact two-card ways a hand can be dealt). The one exception in PlusEV’s charts is pocket deuces, which the cutoff opens and the button only mixes. Learn under the gun first and each later seat is a short list of additions.
The small blind is the odd one out. It raises some hands, limps others and raises 85 of the 169 only part of the time, so it is easier to learn as its own chart once the other four are solid.
Why are some hands so hard to remember?
Because their answer depends on the spot. Across PlusEV’s 1M+ graded training decisions, the hands players get wrong most are the ones whose best action changes most across the 114 spots in PlusEV’s ranges.
We measured it by taking each hand’s majority action (fold, call or raise) in every spot, then scoring how evenly those answers split. The quarter of hands with the most stable answer, mostly hands like 8-3 suited and queen-seven offsuit that fold almost everywhere, are played right 95.1% of the time. The quarter whose answer changes most are played right 80.7% of the time. Across all 169 hands the correlation is -0.67, strong for data like this.
| Hand | Best action across 114 spots | Played right |
|---|---|---|
| 7-2 offsuit | fold 113 times, call once | 98.5% |
| Pocket jacks | raise 56, call 36, fold 22 | 74.1% |
| King-queen suited | raise 51, fold 40, call 23 | 74.6% |
| King-jack suited | fold 48, raise 43, call 23 | 73.0% |
| Ace-five suited | fold 47, raise 43, call 24 | 72.0% |
Accuracy here counts only spots with one clear solver answer and weights every difficulty level equally, with at least 770 answers from 357 players behind each hand. The practical rule follows directly: do not spend equal time on every hand. 7-2 offsuit takes no study, and ace-five suited takes a lot. The hands players misplay most are a ready-made study list.
Do flashcards and spaced repetition work for poker ranges?
Yes. Testing yourself is the part that makes a range stick; rereading it is the part that feels like studying. Memory research has shown this for decades: in Roediger and Karpicke’s 2006 experiments, students who practised recalling a text remembered more of it a week later than students who spent the same time rereading it. And reviews spread over days beat the same reviews crammed into one sitting, the spacing effect Hermann Ebbinghaus first described in 1885.
PlusEV’s own data shows the same loop working on preflop spots. Among 1,932 players with at least 50 answered hands, a spot they missed the first time was answered right on 72% of later attempts at that same spot. A spot they got right the first time stayed right on 90%. The comparison is the same player facing the same decision, so the change is not the app serving easier spots.
Try it on the opening ranges. Pick a seat, answer from memory, and the hands you miss come back a few cards later:
Folded to you under the gun. Raise or fold?
Index cards, a spreadsheet or a flashcard app all work on the same principle. A dedicated trainer saves the setup: in PlusEV, a missed hand goes into your study queue, returns later in the same session, and counts as learned after three right answers in a row.
In what order should you learn preflop ranges?
Most frequent spot first, widest change last:
- Opening ranges, under the gun to the button. You face this decision in every orbit, and the nesting above makes each seat a small step from the last.
- The big blind facing an open. The second most common decision, and the seat where most players lose the most. Our small and big blind guide covers why it defends so wide.
- Facing a 3-bet after you open. Fewer hands, higher stakes per decision. Start with the 3-bet guide and the facing a 3-bet charts.
- The small blind, squeezes and 4-bets. Learn these once everything above is automatic.
One seat per session works better than all of them at once.
What do you do with mixed hands?
Treat them as either answer until the rest of the chart is automatic. A hand the solver raises 40% of the time is close to break-even both ways, which is exactly why the solver mixes it. The opening ranges have few of them anyway: 13 hands under the gun, 11 in the hijack, 7 in the cutoff and 5 on the button. PlusEV works the same way, accepting either action on a split until level 7 and only then asking for the exact mix.
Should you play with a chart open while you learn?
It helps, if your site allows it. One answer in the same Reddit thread describes the method: keep the chart for your seat on screen while playing one table, and check it on close decisions. Rules on study aids differ between poker rooms, so read yours first.
The method has a ceiling. Looking an answer up is not the same as remembering it, and the habit breaks the moment you add tables or sit down live. Use the chart in post-session review instead: go through the hands you played, compare each preflop decision with the chart, and drill the ones you got wrong.
Do you need to memorize preflop ranges at all?
You need the baseline, and then you need to know when to leave it. Charts are the baseline you deviate from on purpose, never by drift: against a table that folds too much you open wider, against one that never folds you tighten up. That only works if the baseline is there without thinking about it.
Knowing the right play and producing it in two seconds are different skills, and only repetition closes that gap. Memorize the edges, drill the hands whose answer changes, test yourself instead of rereading, and bring back what you miss. If you want the repetition done for you, the PlusEV preflop trainer runs that loop on every spot in these charts.
Quick answers
What is the best way to memorize preflop charts?
Learn the last hand each seat opens in every row of the chart, start with the opening ranges and go from under the gun to the button, then test yourself with spaced repetition instead of rereading. Drill the hands whose answer changes from seat to seat hardest; those are the ones players forget.
What does the bottom of a range mean?
The weakest hands a seat still plays. If you know that under the gun opens ace-ten offsuit but not ace-nine offsuit, you know every offsuit ace in that range without memorizing each one.
How many preflop charts do you need to learn?
For 6-max cash, start with five: the opening ranges from under the gun, the hijack, the cutoff, the button and the small blind. The big blind's defence against each seat comes next, then what to do when your open gets 3-bet. PlusEV drills 114 spots in all, but the opening ranges come up most.
Do you need to memorize mixed hands?
Not at first. A hand the solver raises 40% of the time loses almost nothing whichever way you play it. Learn the hands that are always a raise or always a fold, and treat the mixed ones as either.
Can you use a preflop chart while playing online?
It depends on the site. Rules on study aids and real-time assistance differ between poker rooms, so check yours before keeping a chart open at the table. Reviewing your hands against the chart after a session is allowed everywhere.