Preflop Trainer for Texas Hold’em

Most Holdem players lose more money before the flop than they realise, because a small preflop leak repeats in every orbit. The preflop trainer turns that first decision into a quick drill. Each hand shows the whole table: who has folded, who has raised and for how much, the chips in front of each player, the dealer button and the pot. You see your two cards and pick an action in the preflop trainer with a tap or with the F, C and R keys.

After you answer, the preflop trainer grades the choice against a reference chart for that exact spot. It shows the action frequencies for your hand, a short reason based on the type of hand, where the range stops for that group of hands, and the price of a call when there is one. You can open the full 13×13 chart for the spot and see your hand outlined in it.

Correct means you chose the action the chart takes most often with that hand. In a pure spot that is the only answer; in a 50/50 spot both options count as correct.

Playable — part of a mix means the chart sometimes takes your action, just less often than the main one. Borderline hands sit on the edge of a range, and balanced strategies play them more than one way. The preflop trainer will not punish you for picking the minority action, but the frequency bar shows which way the chart leans.

Mistake means the chart never takes that action with this hand. The explanation then tells you how far outside the range the hand sits, for example that offsuit kings open down to KQo under the gun and KJo is one step below that line. That boundary is the part worth remembering.

The open-raise drills in the preflop trainer use the ranges below. The percentage counts every one of the 1,326 starting combinations, with mixed hands counted at their frequency. Each row lists where the range stops for five common groups of hands; mixed hands at the edge are included.

UTG (under the gun), about 12% of hands. Pairs open 55+, suited aces A8s+ and A5s–A4s and offsuit aces AJo+. Seven players still act behind you, so the preflop trainer keeps this range tight: strong pairs, big suited aces, suited broadway cards and only the best offsuit hands. Hands such as KJo and A8o look playable but are dominated too often by the ranges that call or 3-bet.

MP (middle position), about 14% of hands. Pairs open 44+, suited aces A7s+ and A5s–A4s and offsuit aces AJo+. One player fewer behind you widens the range only slightly. A few more pairs and suited hands come in, while offsuit hands below AJo and KQo still fold most of the time.

LJ (the lojack), about 19% of hands. Pairs open 22+, suited aces A2s+ and offsuit aces ATo+. The lojack is where small pairs and all suited aces start to open. Offsuit broadway hands such as KJo join the range, but weak offsuit aces are still folds.

HJ (the hijack), about 22% of hands. Pairs open 22+, suited aces A2s+ and offsuit aces A9o+. From the hijack the range passes one hand in five. Suited connectors and more suited kings open, and the offsuit section reaches A9o and KTo at the edges.

CO (the cutoff), about 31% of hands. Pairs open 22+, suited aces A2s+ and offsuit aces A7o+ and A5o. With only the button and the blinds left, the cutoff opens close to a third of all hands. This is where most players under-open: hands like K7s, J8s and A8o are standard raises here.

BTN (the button), about 46% of hands. Pairs open 22+, suited aces A2s+ and offsuit aces A2o+. The button acts last on every street after the flop, so it opens the widest range at the table. Most suited hands and many offsuit hands with a high card are profitable raises from this seat.

SB (the small blind), about 40% of hands. Pairs open 22+, suited aces A2s+ and offsuit aces A2o+. The small blind opens a wide raise-or-fold range against the big blind alone. Being out of position after the flop keeps it slightly tighter than the button.

Reading the preflop trainer table from top to bottom shows the main idea of preflop strategy: the fewer players left to act, the wider you can open. Our starting hands chart groups hands into three simple tiers for beginners; the preflop trainer goes one step further and splits the same 169 hands seat by seat.

Random deals would mostly give you hands like 72o and AA, which nobody needs to practise. About half the hands the preflop trainer deals sit right at the edge of the range: the last hand that opens and the first one that folds in each group, plus every mixed hand. Roughly a third come from inside the range, and the rest are dealt at random so the easy decisions stay honest.

Each preflop trainer drill picks a spot at random from the ones you selected, and recently seen spot-and-hand combinations are skipped, so a long session keeps showing new decisions. Suits are dealt randomly within each hand type, which is why you will see K♥T♣ one time and K♠T♦ the next.

The free version of the preflop trainer gives you 10 open-raise hands every day, with the same explanations and charts as the paid version. The count resets at midnight on your device and needs no account.

The Unlimited Pass costs $14.99 once, with no subscription. It removes the daily limit, unlocks the facing-a-raise, facing-a-3-bet and all-spots drills, and shows your accuracy by position with a list of recent mistakes. New drills are included when they are added. Checkout is handled by Waffo, our merchant of record. After payment you get a license key on screen that works on up to 3 devices.

You can request a full refund within 14 days of purchase, even after using the pass. Read the refund policy for the request process and timing.

Every spot in the preflop trainer assumes an 8-handed No-Limit Texas Hold’em cash game, $1/$2 blinds, $200 stacks for everyone, no ante, and opens to 2.5 big blinds (3 big blinds from the small blind). 3-bets are about three times the open in position and a little larger from the blinds; 4-bets are a bit over twice the 3-bet.

FlopKit wrote these ranges as simplified teaching charts. They follow the shape of widely published 100bb cash-game charts, rounded to clear actions with occasional 50/50 mixes so they can be learned. They are not solver output. Tighten up against players who rarely bluff, in raked low-stakes games and when stacks are shorter; tournaments with antes need different ranges.

The preflop trainer also ignores reads, table dynamics and post-flop skill, which all change real decisions. To learn the seats and the order of play first, read how to play Texas Hold’em. Think a chart entry is wrong? Use the correction contact with the spot and the hand.