The Oracle
Paint your preflop range on the 13 by 13 grid. Reveal the solver answer. Find out whether you are too tight, too loose, or playing the spot the way the math wants you to.
New to poker? What is this, in plain English
A 13 by 13 grid showing every possible starting hand in poker. You tap the hands you would play. We reveal the hands a perfect player (the solver) would play, and grade your answer.
Why it exists
Before any cards hit the board, you decide which two-card combinations are worth playing from each seat at the table. Knowing this grid cold is the single biggest skill jump from amateur to competent player.
The jargon you will see
- Range
- The full set of starting hands a player would play in a specific situation. Not one hand, a list of hands.
- Preflop
- Before the first three community cards are dealt. The earliest decision in every hand.
- Solver
- A computer program that calculates the mathematically optimal strategy for any poker situation. The output is treated as the 'right' answer to compare yourself against.
- UTG, MP, CO, BTN, SB, BB
- The six seats at a six-handed table, in order of who acts first. UTG (under the gun) acts first and plays the tightest range. BTN (button) acts last and plays the widest.
- Open, 3-bet, 4-bet
- Open is the first raise of a hand. A 3-bet is a re-raise. A 4-bet is a re-re-raise. Each one narrows the range of hands involved.
- 100bb
- 100 big blinds, the standard starting stack size in a cash game. Most pre-flop strategy assumes this depth.
If this is your first time
Pick the BTN open spot from the dropdown. Tap the obvious hands like pairs of aces and any two face cards. Hit reveal. You will see how wide a good button range actually is, which is the first surprise every new player gets.
Loading the Oracle...
How to use it
Pick a spot from the dropdown. Eighteen spots are loaded, covering UTG, MP, CO, BTN, SB and BB opens at 100bb, plus a handful of 3-bet, 4-bet and short-stack jam ranges. Tap the hands you would play in that spot. When you are done, hit reveal.
Green cells are hands you correctly played. Gold cells with a border are hands you folded that the solver wants in your range. Red cells with a border are hands you played that the solver wants out. The verdict tells you whether the gap is a tight problem, a loose problem, or close enough to call it balanced.
Session score is tracked locally on this device. Reset it whenever you want to start a fresh run. When you want to see how two of these solver ranges play against each other, use range vs range. For a custom range against a single hand, use the equity calculator.