Hi all,

Apologies in advance for the long post, but I wanted to give a bit of context so I can get the right advice.

I’m a non-professional player and recently decided to start a small online bankroll challenge, mainly for fun and to document the journey on YouTube. After reviewing my own play, it’s become pretty obvious that I’ve been playing badly, with very little logic or solid foundations behind my decisions. Any success I’ve had has mostly come from not being the biggest whale at the table, or simply running well, rather than from consistent, well-thought-out play.

Because of that, I’ve decided to go back to basics. I’m unlearning what I thought I knew and rebuilding my game properly. I’ve got around 60 days before I plan to restart the challenge. During this time, I’ve signed up to the Foundations course on RIO, which I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll also be joining the Essential monthly membership.

So far, I feel comfortable with pot odds, equity, and most preflop concepts such as opening ranges and 3-bet ranges.

The next step for me is learning how to apply all of this in real situations. I’m a very visual learner, so I need a way to actually “see” how these concepts work in practice.

Where I’m getting stuck is understanding and thinking about opponent hand ranges. At the moment, my in-game thinking is very basic, along the lines of:

“I have a flush draw, I’ve got 9 outs, they’ve bet one-third pot, so I have the equity to call.”

What I’d really like to master is moving beyond that and properly considering what ranges my opponents might have, how my hand performs against those ranges, and how that should influence my decisions.

Whilst looking at charts is helpful, it’s the deeper understanding, the “why”, and the theoretical thinking behind them that I’m struggling with. I can look at charts all day, but without the reasoning, they don’t really help me improve my decision-making.

Any guidance on how to start thinking about opponent ranges, or how to practise this effectively, would be massively appreciated.

Andy