Preflop Opening Ranges By Position

Every Seat At A Glance

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.

The Table Lists Each Seat In The Order It Acts Before The Flop, With Both Sizes Of Its Raise First In Range. Each Seat Has Its Own Lesson With The Full 13 By 13 Chart.

Why Ranges Widen Toward The Button

Two Things Change As The Seat Moves Clockwise. Fewer Players Are Left To Act Behind You, So There Is Less Chance One Of Them Holds A Hand Strong Enough To Raise Or Call. And The Later Seats Are More Likely To Play The Rest Of The Hand In Position, Acting After The Opponent On The Flop, Turn And River, Which Lets A Wider Set Of Hands Realise More Of Their Equity.

The Reference Reflects Both. Under The Gun Has Five Players Behind And Opens 8.4% Of Hands By Frequency. The Cutoff Has Three Players Behind And Opens 16.8%. The Button Has Only The Blinds Behind And Opens 25.2%, The Widest Range At The Table. The Small Blind Is A Special Case: It Has Only The Big Blind Behind But Will Be Out Of Position After The Flop, So Its Raising Range Of 20.7% Is Narrower Than The Button's.

How To Use The Charts

Start With The Hands That Are Opened Every Time, Because They Are The Backbone Of The Range And The Easiest To Memorise. Then Learn The Mixed Hands As A Group, Noticing Which Ones Appear In Every Seat, Such As Suited Aces And Suited Connectors, And Which Ones Only Join From The Later Seats, Such As Weaker Offsuit Broadways.

A Mixed Frequency Is Not An Instruction To Flip A Coin At The Table Forever. It Says The Hand Is Close In Value Between Raising And Folding, Which Means Small Edges Decide It: A Weak Player In The Big Blind, A Tight Table Behind You, Or Your Own Read. When Nothing Points Either Way, Playing The Hand At Roughly The Listed Rate Keeps Your Range Balanced.

Do Not Stretch These Ranges To A Game They Were Not Built For. Nine Handed Games, Short Stacks And Tournaments With Antes Need Their Own Charts, And The 20 Big Blind Lesson In This Series Shows How Much The Same Reference Changes At A Shorter Depth.

Practise It On Smarter.Poker

The Answer Above Is Complete. When You Want To Drill It, These Are The Matching Training Tools.

• Play Preflop Blueprint The Training Game For This Lesson.
• Open The Preflop Range Lab
• Open Jarvis Training Insights Jarvis Explains Your Training Decisions In Words.