Quote Originally Posted by Sasquach991
How do I put villains on a range if I don’t know how to play poker?
This is quite true. But the reverse is also true. Learning how to play poker better makes you estimate ranges better.

When you first start out, your ranges may be way off, because you (1) aren't watching opponents very closely, (2) don't know how to interpret their actions, (3) don't know how to interpret stats, if you even have them, and (4) don't know what different types of players usually do. That's fine, though. You still should be TRYING to put players on ranges, even if you aren't accurate. For instance, you might see an early position raiser and assume he missed a flop like 753 (unless he just had a big pocket pair). He turns out to have a set of 3's, which you didn't realize because you didn't think he would raise pocket 3's from early position. Or you see a player make a huge raise on the flop on a board with 2 spades out. A beginner might not realize that someone might do that with a flush draw and assume instead that they've run into a monster and their top pair top kicker isn't good.

As you get better at poker, your ranges get more accurate, because you realize the arguments in favor of things like raising small pocket pairs and raising flush draws on the flop. And of course, it's a positive feedback loop-- as your ranges get more accurate, you also get better at poker, which means even more accurate ranges, etc.

So I think spoon's advice is very important and that beginning players should immediately start thinking about putting players on ranges, and this is true EVEN IF THE RANGES THAT THE PLAYER COMES UP WITH ARE, AT FIRST, QUITE INACCURATE. They will get better as the player improves, but the player is only going to improve if he or she is thinking about ranges.