Poker isnt for you.
If you had asked for the best way, I might have helped, but as you dont seem to want to put the effort in neither do I.
I understand where you are coming from, but I think you are a little short sighted. Many people playing poker do not know what they do not know.
I played for years against drunks and very bad players and thought that I was pretty good as I ALWAYS went home up. I had no idea what I didn't know until I started studying. I finally realized that I was a fish when I started learning about position, opening
hands and types of players. I had no idea what I didn't know. After unlearning bad habits and continuing to study, I found out that I was still a fish. I had no idea that you needed to learn other players ranges.
The point is that people starting to really take the game serious have no idea what they do not know or even that such things exist. There is a lot to take in and at each level there are new skills to master. Do not get so high and mighty when some of us new guys ask questions. BTW: fastest and best way can still mean that it takes a long time, just slightly shorter method than others.
I clicked on this thread because this is exactly where I am at right now. I am learning ranges. Six weeks ago I had no idea what that even meant or that it was an important skill to learn. I didn't know what I didn't know.
Now to the OP. I am not sure that I am the guy to give any advice, but I spend about 6-10 hours a day, 5 days a week playing and studying. Just the other day I started trying to range people. I play mostly small tourneys and sit-n-go's. I find I do best at those. What I started doing is going into the game as a NIT until I can identify who the tight and loose players are. This is the beginning of figuring out ranges, by seeing what they are betting, where they are betting and then looking at their cards at showdowns. This is nothing more than broad understanding of their range.
To make things easier on myself. I look at 3 things
#1 How many hands is the person playing
#2 From what positions are they playing hands. I break it down into just front, middle and last
#3 What cards are they playing
This
tells me what kind of a player they are. This will give me a clue to the range they play. Once I have this figured out, I practice in my mind calling their hole cards.
I am learning to pay attention to every hand. It is HARD to do as it takes a lot of concentration and is very exhausting for me. What I have noticed though is the more I do it, the more it starts to come naturally to me and is a little easier as time goes on. I personally have a long ways to go and until I started practicing had no way of knowing how much work poker was. I just realized the last few days that I can spend months if not years honing this part of the craft.
To all you pros out there, If I am wrong in any of this please correct me before I build bad habits.