Middle Position Opening Range, 6 Max
In The Smarter.Poker 6 Max Cash Reference At 100 Big Blinds, The Middle Position Seat Opens 10.9% Of All Starting Hands By Frequency And Plays 17.3% Of Them At Least Some Of The Time, With The Full Chart Below.
Preflop Lesson From Smarter.Poker, Updated
The Middle Position 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 Middle Position. 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% | A9s45% | A8s12% | A7s0% | A6s0% | A5s72% | A4s52% | A3s28% | A2s10% |
| K | AKo100% | KK100% | KQs100% | KJs100% | KTs78% | K9s28% | K8s0% | K7s0% | K6s0% | K5s0% | K4s0% | K3s0% | K2s0% |
| Q | AQo100% | KQo55% | QQ100% | QJs100% | QTs62% | Q9s12% | Q8s0% | Q7s0% | Q6s0% | Q5s0% | Q4s0% | Q3s0% | Q2s0% |
| J | AJo68% | KJo22% | QJo0% | JJ100% | JTs82% | J9s25% | J8s0% | J7s0% | J6s0% | J5s0% | J4s0% | J3s0% | J2s0% |
| T | ATo22% | KTo0% | QTo0% | JTo0% | TT100% | T9s58% | T8s12% | T7s0% | T6s0% | T5s0% | T4s0% | T3s0% | T2s0% |
| 9 | A9o0% | K9o0% | Q9o0% | J9o0% | T9o0% | 99100% | 98s42% | 97s0% | 96s0% | 95s0% | 94s0% | 93s0% | 92s0% |
| 8 | A8o0% | K8o0% | Q8o0% | J8o0% | T8o0% | 98o0% | 8872% | 87s32% | 86s0% | 85s0% | 84s0% | 83s0% | 82s0% |
| 7 | A7o0% | K7o0% | Q7o0% | J7o0% | T7o0% | 97o0% | 87o0% | 7748% | 76s25% | 75s0% | 74s0% | 73s0% | 72s0% |
| 6 | A6o0% | K6o0% | Q6o0% | J6o0% | T6o0% | 96o0% | 86o0% | 76o0% | 6622% | 65s20% | 64s0% | 63s0% | 62s0% |
| 5 | A5o0% | K5o0% | Q5o0% | J5o0% | T5o0% | 95o0% | 85o0% | 75o0% | 65o0% | 550% | 54s10% | 53s0% | 52s0% |
| 4 | A4o0% | K4o0% | Q4o0% | J4o0% | T4o0% | 94o0% | 84o0% | 74o0% | 64o0% | 54o0% | 440% | 43s0% | 42s0% |
| 3 | A3o0% | K3o0% | Q3o0% | J3o0% | T3o0% | 93o0% | 83o0% | 73o0% | 63o0% | 53o0% | 43o0% | 330% | 32s0% |
| 2 | A2o0% | K2o0% | Q2o0% | J2o0% | T2o0% | 92o0% | 82o0% | 72o0% | 62o0% | 52o0% | 42o0% | 32o0% | 220% |
What The Range Plays Every Time
15 Hand Classes Are Opened Every Time: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AKs, AKo, AQs, AQo, AJs, ATs, KQs, KJs, QJs. Together They Are 88 Of The 1326 Possible Starting Combinations. 26 More Hand Classes Are Opened Only Part Of The Time, And The Most Frequent Of Those Are JTs At 82%, KTs At 78%, 88 At 72%, A5s At 72%, AJo At 68%, QTs At 62%.
Strictly, A Six Handed Table Has Five Seats That Can Open Before The Big Blind: Under The Gun, The Hijack, The Cutoff, The Button And The Small Blind. The Reference Also Carries A Middle Position Range For The Step Between Under The Gun And The Hijack, Which Is What The Second Seat To Act Looks Like At A Slightly Larger Table. With One Fewer Player Behind Than Under The Gun, The Range Adds More Pairs, More Suited Aces And More Offsuit Broadway Hands Than The Seat Before It.
Why This Seat Plays This Way
Every Seat That Folds Before You Is One Less Player Who Can Hold A Premium Hand, So The Range Can Take On Hands That Are Slightly Worse On Average. The Additions Are Not Random: They Are The Hands That Were Closest To The Line From Under The Gun, Such As The Middle Pairs, ATs And KTs, Which Move From Mixed Toward Always.
The Hijack, The Cutoff, The Button And Both Blinds Are Still To Act, And The Blinds Will Usually Be Out Of Position Against You After The Flop. That Helps A Little. The Cutoff And The Button Are The Real Threats, Because They Can Call And Play The Rest Of The Hand With Position, Or Three Bet And Put You In A Difficult Spot With A Marginal Hand.
The Practical Lesson Is To Treat Middle Position As A Slightly Wider Version Of Under The Gun, Not As A Late Seat. Hands Such As Weak Suited Kings And Offsuit Queens Still Belong Mostly In The Fold Column Here, And They Only Become Profitable Opens Once The Cutoff And The Button Are No Longer Behind You.
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 Several 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
- UTG Opening Range In 6 Max Cash
- Hijack Opening Range In 6 Max Cash
- Preflop Opening Ranges By Position
- 3-Bet Sizing In Position And Out
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 Position Power 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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