Poker Hand Reading Cheat Sheet (Free PDF)
By Todd · Sep 2, 2026 · 10 min read · Updated Nov 3, 2026
The PDF prints on one sheet, front and back. The front is about people: who you're facing and what their actions mean. The back is the arithmetic: prices, combos and odds. Keep it next to you while you review hands, and stop using a block once you know it cold.
Download the cheat sheet (PDF)
Everything on the sheet is below, with a note on how to use each block. The type profiles and ranges are the ones Soul Read's opponents are built on, at a six-handed table.
The loop
Every read repeats four steps on every street:
- Who is this? Pick one of the seven types. Re-type them when their action contradicts the label.
- What did they start with? Type, seat and preflop action set the range.
- What did this street remove? Would this player make this play with this hand? If not, it's gone.
- Commit before the next card. Then score it: did the range hold the hand, and how wide was it?
How to use it: step 1 is the one people skip, and it decides everything after it. A turn call means something different from each of the seven types below, so the same board and the same bets can leave seven different ranges.
The seven player types
| Type | VPIP | PFR | 3-bet | C-bet | Folds to c-bet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nit | 10–16 | ~11 | 3 | 68 | 65 |
| TAG | 19–24 | ~18 | 7 | 62 | 52 |
| Reg | 24–28 | ~23 | 8 | 57 | 45 |
| LAG | 27–33 | ~25 | 9 | 72 | 42 |
| Fish | 40–60 | ~8 | 2 | 40 | 50 |
| Calling station | 35–55 | ~10 | 2.5 | 32 | 20 |
| Aggressive fish | 40–60 | ~38 | 15 | 82 | 28 |
All numbers are percentages. VPIP is the share of hands a player puts money in with voluntarily; PFR is the share they raise before the flop. C-bet is how often they bet the flop after raising preflop, and the last column is how often they fold to one.
| Type | A big bet means | A call means | A raise means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nit | The nuts or close. Fold one pair. | Flop: top or middle pair, good draws. Turn: top pair or better. | Two pair or better, or a pair plus a draw |
| TAG | Value. They under-bluff the river. | Pairs and draws; their best hands raise | Strong hands and big draws |
| Reg | Value and bluffs in proportion | Wide, and it can hide strong hands | Value plus semi-bluffs, mixed |
| LAG | Polarized: very strong or air | Pairs, draws and floats, even against big bets | Value and any decent draw |
| Fish | They hit something | Any pair or draw against small bets; most fold to big ones | A monster |
| Calling station | Strong; they rarely bet anything else | Any pair, any draw, even a gutshot | The nuts |
| Aggressive fish | Little; betting is their default | Any pair, often against big bets | Strong hands and draws, rarely air |
How to use it: find the row from two numbers, how many hands they play and whether they raise or call when they do. Then read across. The columns on the right are the point of the sheet. A big river bet from a nit and the same bet from an aggressive fish need opposite responses, and so do their calls: a nit who calls a half-pot turn bet has top pair or better or a big draw, while an aggressive fish who calls it can have bottom pair.
Hold the label loosely early on. Over one six-handed orbit a 22% TAG sits out every pot about one time in four, so a quiet first orbit doesn't make anyone a nit. Open-limps, 3-bets with weak hands and showdowns tell you more than a count of hands played. The hand reading exercises cover how many hands it takes before the stats mean much.
Opening ranges by seat
First in, six-handed:
| Seat | Nit | TAG | LAG | The TAG range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under the gun | 6.2% | 11.2% | 17.6% | 77+, ATs+, A5s, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, AJo+, KQo |
| Hijack | 9.4% | 16.0% | 24.9% | 55+, A4s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, AJo+, KQo, QJo |
| Cutoff | 13.6% | 20.4% | 30.6% | 22+, A8s+, A2s–A5s, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, ATo+, KJo+, QJo |
| Button | 19.8% | 27.9% | 40.6% | 22+, A2s+, K5s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, 54s, 43s, A9o+, K9o+, QTo+, JTo |
| Small blind | 13.9% | 19.5% | 30.0% | 44+, A8s+, A3s–A5s, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, ATo+, KTo+, QJo |
The three loose types barely adjust by seat. First in from the cutoff, a fish plays 68% of hands (12% raised, 56% limped), a calling station 44% (11% raised, 33% limped), and an aggressive fish 47%, all of it raised. Facing a raise they fold more, which is why their overall VPIP is lower than these figures.
How to use it: this is step 2 of the loop. Start from the type's number for the seat, then let the action narrow it. With the fish and the station, split the range by how they came in: their raises are a small top slice, and their limps are everything else.
What preflop actions do to a range
- Raise first in: the top of that type's range for the seat. From a fish or a station, a raise is only their top 11–12%.
- Limp: from a fish or station, most of their range. From a nit, TAG or reg, rare enough to treat as a trap or a mistake.
- 3-bet: a nit's is QQ+ and AK. A TAG's is value-heavy: JJ+, AQs+, AK and a suited wheel ace from the cutoff. Regs and LAGs add bluffs. Fish 3-bet only QQ+, stations only KK+. Aggressive fish 3-bet 15% of hands, with almost anything.
- Cold call: from a nit, TAG or reg, it removes the top (they'd have 3-bet) and the bottom. From a fish or station it removes almost nothing from the top, because their 3-bet range is a pair or two, so jacks, ace-king and ace-queen all stay in their calling range.
How to use it: the cold-call line is where most preflop reads go wrong. "They just called, so no big hands" is right against a TAG, who would have 3-bet jacks and ace-king. Against a fish it's wrong, because their flat still holds jacks, ace-king and ace-queen.
Board texture
These are tendencies, not rules.
| Board | Example | A bet means | A call means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | K♠7♦2♣ | From a LAG or aggressive fish, little. From a nit or fish, a pair or better. | Any pair; floats from a LAG |
| Wet | J♥T♥9♣ | Strong hands and draws. Checking is costly here, so checks are weaker. | Pairs and draws in about equal measure |
| Paired | 9♠9♦4♣ | From aggressive types, often air. From passive types, trips or better. | Pocket pairs, a slow-played nine, a float |
| Ace-high | A♦8♠3♣ | The preflop raiser bets most of their range. A caller who leads usually has an ace. | Weak aces, middle pairs, stubborn pocket pairs |
The price of a bet
| Bet | You need to win | Balanced bluffs | Defend (MDF) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⅓ pot | 20% | 20% | 75% |
| ½ pot | 25% | 25% | 67% |
| ⅔ pot | 28.6% | 28.6% | 60% |
| ¾ pot | 30% | 30% | 57% |
| Pot | 33.3% | 33.3% | 50% |
| 1.5× pot | 37.5% | 37.5% | 40% |
| 2× pot | 40% | 40% | 33% |
For a bet of b times the pot, you need to win b ÷ (1 + 2b) of the time, and a balanced river range holds that share of bluffs. Minimum defense frequency, the share of your range you'd continue with so the bettor can't profit with any two cards, is 1 ÷ (1 + b).
How to use it: "you need" applies on every street to your final equity. The bluff and MDF columns are river numbers: before the river, draws carry equity and the arithmetic changes. Both describe a balanced opponent, which is what a solver assumes. The type row tells you how far the actual player is from that. Nits, TAGs, fish and stations put fewer bluffs into their big bets than the table says, so fold more of your bluff catchers. Aggressive fish put in more, so call more.
Combinations
- Unpaired hand: 16 combos (4 suited, 12 offsuit). Pocket pair: 6.
- Card removal, unpaired: for ace-king, one ace showing leaves 12, one ace and one king leaves 9, two aces leave 8. The rule is aces left times kings left.
- Card removal, pairs: 6, then 3, 1 and 0 as their cards appear.
- Unknown hands: 1,326 two-card hands preflop, 1,176 once the flop is out, 1,081 when you also take out your own two cards. The 13×13 grid has 169 cells: 13 pairs (78 combos), 78 suited hands (312) and 78 offsuit (936).
- Share to combos: 5% of hands is about 66 combos, 10% about 133, 20% about 265, 30% about 398, 50% about 663.
- Blockers: every combo that uses a card you can see is gone. Hold the A♥ on a three-heart board and they can't have the nut flush.
Worked example: a TAG opens the cutoff with the range above, 270 combos. You hold A♠K♣ and the flop comes K♦9♣4♠. Your cards and the board leave 200 of their combos. Twelve beat you: AA (3), KK (1), 99 (3), 44 (3) and K9s (2). Six tie (AK). Twenty are top pair with a worse kicker, 74 are smaller pairs, and 88 have no pair. The exercises post has this as a drill with two other sets.
Flop odds
| What you flop | How often |
|---|---|
| Unpaired hand pairs a hole card or better | 32.4% |
| Pocket pair flops a set or better | 11.8% |
| Suited hand flops a flush draw | 10.9% |
| Suited hand flops a flush | 0.8% |
| Connector (54 through JT) flops an 8-out straight draw | 9.7% |
| Connector flops a gutshot | 16.8% |
How to use it: most flops miss most hands, including your opponent's. That's why a flop bet from a player who c-bets 82% of the time tells you so little, and one from a fish who c-bets 40% tells you a lot.
Turn calls, by type
When they face a bet on the turn from a player who looks solid, Soul Read's opponents follow these rules:
- Middle pair against half pot: the nit folds. The TAG, fish, LAG, station and aggressive fish call. The reg calls 75% of the time.
- Middle pair against a pot-size bet: the nit, TAG and fish fold. The LAG, station and aggressive fish call. The reg calls 45%.
- Bottom pair against half pot: only the LAG, station and aggressive fish call. The reg calls 45%.
- Flush draw against a pot-size bet: only the LAG and aggressive fish call.
Against a bettor they see as tight they fold one size sooner, and against a LAG or aggressive fish they call one size later.
How to use it: read it backwards. When a TAG calls your pot-size turn bet, middle pair has left their range. When a station calls it, middle pair is still there.
Bet sizing and timing
- Small: wants a call, or a cheap look at the next card.
- Large or overbet: polarized. From a passive player, drop the bluff half.
- Min-raise from a recreational player: often a monster that wants action.
- A change from that player's usual size is information on its own.
- Timing only means something against the player's own baseline. Watch for a while before you trust it.
The six questions before you act
- Who is this player?
- What range did they start with?
- What has each street removed?
- Does this bet make sense as value? As a bluff? For this player?
- How many combos beat me, and how many don't?
- Am I reading their hand, or defending mine?
The mistakes
- One-hand fixation: deciding early and bending every action to fit.
- Adding hands back that an earlier street removed. If the action stops making sense, re-type the player instead.
- The right range for the wrong player: one line, seven different ranges.
- Reading your own hand instead of theirs.
- Calling a passive player's raise a bluff. It almost never is.
- Skipping the count when the decision is close.
Using it
Print the PDF and go through the six questions on every big pot from your last session. Score each read on two numbers, whether your range contained the hand and how many combos it held, and aim for a hit rate of 70–85% while the width comes down. For a full hand worked with this method, read how to put someone on a range.
