PokerStrategy Equilab is a Holdem poker calculator that is free to use and can calculate equity, outcomes, and provide hand range analysis.
I think itâs time to give the PokerStrategy Equilab software a proper review. I used to use PokerStove but I switched to Equilab as I think it has a few edges on the former and is more well made. Equilab suits the beginniner, intermediate and proficient poker players really well. It has got me to understand a lot of situations and I have spent countless hours in it, either calculating spots in hands that I thought at the time were close, or
learning about certain rangesâ equity in different spots. As a coach I also use it to make ranges for my students in an easy to read format that saves them time. Finally, a really nice feature of the software is that it has an equity trainer which you probably didnât know about!
All in all, I think this is a really good piece of software and thatâs why Iâm writing this article. The hours put into the study of hands that seem really close will improve your game as a poker player to the next level. Let me show you some interesting things that you can do with it:
Fast equity calculations - key to poker success
Whenever you need to study a hand as intrinsically as possible, the equity calculator is exactly where you need to go.
Equilab saved me a lot of time because I could not only select hands from the range by clicking them, I could actually drag the mouse while holding left click and select a wide array of hands, just like playing Snake.
Pre-defined hand ranges

are the predefined hand ranges. I was delighted to see this when I first started to try out this software several years ago, because it saves you a lot of time by assigning default ranges to opponents, ranges that were presented by several respectable coaching sites, so theyâre legit, made by actual poker players/coaches. No 30% BTN! Have a look see:

This is a ShortHanded(SH) Loose opening range, and you can select a lot more, they just save time because if you want to assign a certain range to a player that opens from the button aggressively, you donât have to put in all the hands that heâd steal with, you just have to assign a Loose, Tight or Standard raise.
Another way to do this is by using the slider and assigning his exact steal % rom the BTN, so if he steals 50% and itâs a solid stat because you have a lot of hands on the guy, you can easily see what hands that amounts to. In the Power Equilab version that can be
found here (you can download a free trial to test it out), you can actually select the Hand ranking table that you want, and thereâs some really useful ones there. So basically, when you use the slider to make up 50% of the range, itâs gonna use the top 50% hands in that range table.

Let's construct a range
Let me show you how to easily construct a range here. Of course, usually we keep either the Sklansky-Malmuth groups, or the Equity vs Random 1 hand, because thatâs supposed to be the best, right ? Well, letâs say if youâre UTG in a 9-max FR game, and youâre thinking you want to construct your opening range for this position. Would it not make sense to take the hand ranking table for âEquity vs 8 random handsâ? It most definitely would, youâre right on track. So, after selecting the table, just click on OK and now itâs time to decide
how much do we need to open from UTG? Are we playing soft games or will our opponents be 3-bet bluffing us a lot with blockers? Letâs try to put in 12% opening range UTG.

There we go! Although I donât recommend raising ATo as part of your 12% UTG opening range, itâs better against 8 randoms than, letâs say, A7s. It makes sense because itâs blocker heavy and as long as you donât go overboard with it, everything will be fine and dandy. Iâd actually take it out and raise all pairs instead because we just get so much respect raising UTG in 9-max and a lot of folds to C-bets, so when you get called, most of the time with ATo youâre way behind, but with pairs when you get a set, youâre unbeatable most of the time.
You can also use weights in this, for example if you want to assign to a villain that he might be 3-betting 50% of the time KQo you can just use the weight function. This is also only available in the Power Equilab version.
Equity Trainer - Real Scenarios
Going forward, I promised Iâd show you the Equity Trainer and I think this is really beneficial to a poker playerâs understanding of preflop situations, and if you do this often enough, youâll see that this will expand your horizons. Youâll start raising more, youâll start 3-betting a lot looser and fear opponents that open especially from late positions a lot less.
Let me give you an example on how this works. This is not only for No Limit Holdâem, but for Fixed Limit and SitânâGo and implicitly MTTâs also.
Here you select exactly what equity situations you want to train in:

Letâs take for example No Limit Big blind defense vs BU open-raise. This is imperative to be known by heart, because itâs a real eye-opener to the amount you should be defending your blinds and the ranges you need to do this with. Hereâs an example:
The button opening range is assigned by default, but you can change it to your needs.

I almost got it! So you see, K9o is really very close to 50% against the BTNâs opening range. So why not 3-bet it? It could get you into a pickle if you get called, but you can find other hands like A3s and K8s to be fairly similar in equity and easier/better to play postflop in 3-bet pots.
If you also want to play it cool like youâre using FlopZilla, you can check the Flop/Turn/River boxes and fair your knowledge of K9 for example on a T73 board. Youâll be super surprised of the results and how often youâre ahead, and if your opponent
has a bad habit of C-betting a lot, you can just reverse-float OOP and maybe take it away on later streets, OR raise him because youâre getting an insane amount of folds.
Poker Maths Tool
Another really useful thing here that shed a lot of light on my poker math was the Poker mathematics tool, where you just type in the numbers and it magically gives you the solution, using the formulas that are also displayed below. Letâs try to calculate the fold frequency that we need when opening 2x from the BTN, which we just do by entering the numbers in the Fold Frequency screen:

This is a really powerful tool, because it allows you to read opponentâs stats and then, if you know these numbers by heart, evaluate the spots in which you can raise ATC(Any Two Cards), or ~80% of your range to exploit your opponents and win a lot of money in the long run by just stealing his blinds a lot and not going overboard postflop. The software goes a lot further than that, offering a lot of choices, as you can read all the tabs above. I personally like Facing 3bet, but Iâll let you guys discover that one on your own. Itâs a game changer!
What else does Equilab have to offer?
- Heatmaps
- Equity Graphs
- Scenario Analyzer
- Playabilities
- Import Hand History
Downloads