Preflop Chart Tools: How to Use Them

A preflop chart tool shows which starting hands to play — and whether to raise, call, or fold — from each position and against each action, laid out on the familiar 13×13 grid. It’s the fastest way to learn a sound preflop strategy, because it compresses thousands of decisions into a few color-coded pictures you can drill until they’re automatic.

What a preflop chart shows

The grid packs every starting hand into one square each: pairs on the diagonal, suited hands above it, offsuit hands below. Color coding turns strategy into a picture — typically one color for raise, another for call, another for fold, and sometimes a mixed color for hands played different ways at different frequencies.

A single chart is always tied to a specific situation, because the right hands change completely with position and action:

So “the preflop chart” is really a set of charts. Learning them is learning how your correct range tightens from early position and widens on the button.

How to read one correctly

Reading a chart takes two seconds once you know the layout:

1. Identify the situation — your position and the action facing you. Grab the matching chart.
2. Find your hand on the grid: pair on the diagonal, suited above, offsuit below.
3. Read the color for the recommended action, noting any mixed-frequency hands.

The detail beginners miss is suitedness. A♥5♥ and A♥5♠ look similar but often live in different colors — suited hands play more because they make flushes and realize equity better. Always check whether your specific two cards are suited before you trust the square.

Drilling them so they stick

Memorization fails when you review the obvious hands and skip the hard ones. Everyone knows to raise aces; nobody’s edge comes from that. Focus your reps on the borderline squares:

• Learn one position at a time. Master the button open before touching under-the-gun.
• Drill the edges. The hands at the boundary between call and fold are where money is won and lost — study those, not the slam-dunks.
• Quiz yourself randomly with a trainer app that deals spots and scores you, instead of just re-reading the chart.
• Space your reps. Ten minutes daily beats one long cram session for making ranges permanent.

A worked example

You’re dealt A♠J♦ — ace-jack offsuit. Beginners treat it as a premium and play it everywhere. The charts tell a different story:

• On the button: it’s a clear open-raise — plenty of weaker hands behind you.
• Under the gun (full ring): many solid charts have it as a fold or a low-frequency open, because so many players can wake up with a better ace.
• Facing a 3-bet: it’s frequently a fold, since it dominates little and is dominated by AQ, AK, and pairs.

Same two cards, three different correct answers — driven entirely by position and action. That’s the lesson charts drive home: there is no such thing as a “playable hand” without a situation attached to it.

Don’t turn a study aid into a crutch

Charts are for the classroom, not the felt. Leaning on one during play stunts you and, live, generally isn’t allowed anyway.

• The goal is memorization. If you still need to peek, you haven’t finished studying.
• Charts are a baseline, not the whole game. They tell you the default; adjusting against specific opponents is where real profit lives.
• Understand the why. Knowing why a hand widens on the button — position lets you act last — makes the ranges stick far better than rote color-matching.

The bottom line

Preflop chart tools compress a sound opening strategy into color-coded grids you read in seconds and, ideally, memorize until you don’t need them. Learn one position at a time, drill the borderline hands, and always respect suitedness. Deepen the picture with range analysis tools, test your recall with a trainer, and connect the charts to the theory in the preflop GTO hub and the rest of the poker toolkit.