Button Opening Range In 6 Max Cash
In The Smarter.Poker 6 Max Cash Reference At 100 Big Blinds, The Button Opens 25.2% Of All Starting Hands By Frequency And Plays 40% Of Them At Least Some Of The Time, With The Full Chart Below.
Preflop Lesson From Smarter.Poker, Updated
The Button Opening Chart
The Chart Is Generated From The Smarter.Poker Preflop Reference, The Same Ranges The Preflop Range Lab Drills. They Are An Authored Teaching Reference For Six Handed Cash At One Hundred Big Blinds, Not A Solver Export, And No Solve Tree Or Checksum Is Attached To Them. Two Sizes Describe A Mixed Range And They Are Not The Same Number. The First Counts Every Hand At The Rate It Is Actually Played, So A Hand Opened Half The Time Counts Half. The Second Counts Any Hand The Range Plays At Least Some Of The Time, In Full.
Read The Table By Row And Column. Pairs Run Down The Diagonal, Suited Hands Sit Above It And Offsuit Hands Below It, And Each Cell Shows How Often The Hand Is Raised When The Action Folds To The Button. A Cell At 0% Is A Fold Every Time.
| A | K | Q | J | T | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | AA100% | AKs100% | AQs100% | AJs100% | ATs100% | A9s100% | A8s88% | A7s75% | A6s58% | A5s100% | A4s100% | A3s82% | A2s65% |
| K | AKo100% | KK100% | KQs100% | KJs100% | KTs100% | K9s92% | K8s55% | K7s35% | K6s22% | K5s10% | K4s0% | K3s0% | K2s0% |
| Q | AQo100% | KQo100% | QQ100% | QJs100% | QTs100% | Q9s82% | Q8s42% | Q7s12% | Q6s0% | Q5s0% | Q4s0% | Q3s0% | Q2s0% |
| J | AJo100% | KJo100% | QJo100% | JJ100% | JTs100% | J9s85% | J8s38% | J7s8% | J6s0% | J5s0% | J4s0% | J3s0% | J2s0% |
| T | ATo100% | KTo82% | QTo72% | JTo82% | TT100% | T9s100% | T8s72% | T7s18% | T6s0% | T5s0% | T4s0% | T3s0% | T2s0% |
| 9 | A9o62% | K9o38% | Q9o28% | J9o25% | T9o52% | 99100% | 98s100% | 97s38% | 96s5% | 95s0% | 94s0% | 93s0% | 92s0% |
| 8 | A8o32% | K8o10% | Q8o0% | J8o5% | T8o10% | 98o28% | 88100% | 87s92% | 86s28% | 85s0% | 84s0% | 83s0% | 82s0% |
| 7 | A7o12% | K7o0% | Q7o0% | J7o0% | T7o0% | 97o0% | 87o15% | 77100% | 76s82% | 75s18% | 74s0% | 73s0% | 72s0% |
| 6 | A6o0% | K6o0% | Q6o0% | J6o0% | T6o0% | 96o0% | 86o0% | 76o8% | 66100% | 65s72% | 64s8% | 63s0% | 62s0% |
| 5 | A5o0% | K5o0% | Q5o0% | J5o0% | T5o0% | 95o0% | 85o0% | 75o0% | 65o0% | 5585% | 54s55% | 53s5% | 52s0% |
| 4 | A4o0% | K4o0% | Q4o0% | J4o0% | T4o0% | 94o0% | 84o0% | 74o0% | 64o0% | 54o0% | 4472% | 43s22% | 42s0% |
| 3 | A3o0% | K3o0% | Q3o0% | J3o0% | T3o0% | 93o0% | 83o0% | 73o0% | 63o0% | 53o0% | 43o0% | 3352% | 32s0% |
| 2 | A2o0% | K2o0% | Q2o0% | J2o0% | T2o0% | 92o0% | 82o0% | 72o0% | 62o0% | 52o0% | 42o0% | 32o0% | 2238% |
What The Range Plays Every Time
31 Hand Classes Are Opened Every Time: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, AKs, AKo, AQs, AQo, AJs, AJo, ATs, ATo, A9s, A5s, A4s, KQs, KQo, KJs, KJo, KTs, QJs, QJo, QTs, JTs, T9s, 98s. Together They Are 198 Of The 1326 Possible Starting Combinations. 49 More Hand Classes Are Opened Only Part Of The Time, And The Most Frequent Of Those Are K9s At 92%, 87s At 92%, A8s At 88%, 55 At 85%, J9s At 85%, A3s At 82%.
The Button Acts Last On Every Street After The Flop, Which Makes It The Most Profitable Seat At The Table And The Widest Opening Range In The Reference. Only The Two Blinds Are Left Behind It, And Both Of Them Will Be Out Of Position.
Why This Seat Plays This Way
Position Is Worth More Than Card Strength At The Margins. Acting Last Means You See What The Blind Does Before You Decide, So You Can Take Free Cards, Bet When They Show Weakness And Fold Cheaply When They Show Strength. That Information Lets Hands Such As Weak Suited Kings, Suited Gappers And Offsuit Connectors Show A Profit That They Could Never Show From An Early Seat.
The Button Also Has The Most Fold Equity. Two Players Remain, Both Have Already Put Chips In, And Both Must Defend Out Of Position. Every Time They Fold The Button Collects One And A Half Big Blinds Without A Flop, And That Is A Large Part Of Why The Range Is As Wide As It Is.
The Small Blind And The Big Blind Know This, So They Defend And Three Bet More Against The Button Than Against Any Other Seat. Expect More Resistance And Prepare For It: Your Widest Opens Are The First Hands To Fold To A Three Bet, While Your Strongest Hands And A Few Suited Blockers Are The Ones That Continue.
Common Mistakes
The Most Common Leak Is Treating A Mixed Hand As A Pure One. A Hand Listed At A Frequency Below 100% Is Folded The Rest Of The Time, And Turning Every One Of Them Into An Open Adds Combinations The Reference Does Not Play. With Two Players Still To Act Behind This Seat, Every Extra Weak Open Is A Hand That Can Be Raised Off Its Equity.
The Second Is Copying A Chart To A Game It Was Not Built For. These Ranges Assume Six Players, 100 Big Blind Stacks And A Standard Open Size. Shorter Stacks, Antes, A Straddle Or A Very Passive Table All Change The Right Answer, So Use The Chart As A Baseline And Adjust With A Reason You Can Name.
Keep Learning
- Cutoff Opening Range In 6 Max Cash
- Small Blind Opening Range, 6 Max
- How To Defend The Big Blind
- Continuation Betting: When To C-Bet
Poker Terms In This Lesson
Practise It On Smarter.Poker
The Answer Above Is Complete. When You Want To Drill It, These Are The Matching Training Tools.
- Play Button Warfare The Training Game For This Lesson.
- Open The Preflop Range Lab
- Open Jarvis Training Insights Jarvis Explains Your Training Decisions In Words.
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