How to use the push/fold chart
- Pick your table: 9-handed, 6-handed or heads-up, and whether there is a big blind ante. Most modern tournaments use a big blind ante.
- Choose the situation: Shove (first in) if everyone has folded to you, or Call a shove if someone has moved all-in. For calls, pick the shover's seat and then yours.
- Set the effective stack with the slider: the smaller of your stack and your opponent's, in big blinds.
- Read the chart: green hands are shoves (or calls). Tap any hand to see the biggest stack it can be played at and how many big blinds shoving or calling gains over folding.
- Switch to Nash numbers to see every hand's cut-off stack on one color-coded chart, then download it as an image, print it or copy a link to your exact settings.
- Practice with the Trainer: you get random seats, stacks and hands, decide shove, call or fold, and get the answer and its value straight away.
What is a Nash push/fold chart?
A Nash equilibrium is a set of strategies where no player can gain by changing their own play. For push/fold poker it tells each seat which hands to move all-in with when everyone has folded to them, and which hands each player behind should call with. Weak opponents can be exploited for more, but Nash ranges cannot be beaten by any counter-strategy, which makes them the safest default when you are short-stacked.
How we built these charts
We calculated the all-in equity of all 169 starting hands against each other with card removal, over 430 million simulated deals. We then solved the shove-or-fold game for every seat at 9-handed, 6-handed and heads-up tables, with and without a 1 big blind ante, for every stack from 1 to 20 big blinds in half-big-blind steps. The calculation is chip EV with equal stacks. To keep it fast, it assumes that once one player calls, everyone behind folds; multiway all-ins are rare, but this makes early-position shoving ranges very slightly wider than a full multiway solver. Our heads-up results match the published heads-up Nash charts to within one or two hands at every stack.
Key takeaways
Share of hands to shove when folded to you, 9-handed with a big blind ante:
| Seat | 20bb | 15bb | 10bb | 5bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UTG | 8% | 10% | 16% | 45% |
| Hijack | 14% | 19% | 27% | 49% |
| Cutoff | 24% | 29% | 33% | 52% |
| Button | 33% | 36% | 44% | 60% |
| Small blind | 54% | 62% | 72% | 83% |
- Position matters more than anything. At 10bb the small blind shoves 72% of hands but UTG only 16%, because more players are left to wake up with a hand.
- Antes widen everything. At 10bb the button shoves 44% of hands with a big blind ante and 32% without one. K9o goes from a button shove up to 8.5bb without an ante to 16.5bb with one.
- Calling ranges are tighter than shoving ranges. At 10bb with an ante, the big blind calls a button shove with about 35% of hands; the button shoves 44%. The shover wins the pot outright when everyone folds; the caller has no such fold equity.
- With an ante, small pairs and suited aces are shoves from the cutoff and button at every stack up to 20bb, while offsuit hands like Q7o are only shoves when you are very short.
Exact 10bb ranges by seat (9-handed, big blind ante)
- UTG (16%): 33+, A5s+, KTs+, QJs, A8o+, KQo
- UTG+1 (17%): 33+, A4s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, A8o+, KQo
- Middle position (19%): 22+, A2s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, A7o+, KJo+
- Lojack (22%): 22+, A2s+, K9s+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, A5o+, KJo+
- Hijack (27%): 22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, A2o+, KTo+, QJo
- Cutoff (33%): 22+, A2s+, K5s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 87s, A2o+, K9o+, QTo+, JTo
- Button (44%): 22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q4s+, J7s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, 54s, A2o+, K5o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o
- Small blind (72%): 22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J2s+, T2s+, 93s+, 84s+, 73s+, 63s+, 53s+, 43s, A2o+, K2o+, Q2o+, J5o+, T6o+, 96o+, 86o+, 76o, 65o
- Big blind calling a button shove (35%): 22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q8s+, J9s+, T9s, A2o+, K7o+, Q9o+, JTo
- Big blind calling a small-blind shove (54%): 22+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 97s+, 87s, A2o+, K2o+, Q4o+, J7o+, T8o+
Ranges use standard notation: 22+ means every pair, A2s+ means every suited ace, and K5o+ means K5o up to KQo.
Facing an open raise instead of a fold? Use the reshove chart. Playing a knockout or near the money? See PKO bounty ranges and ICM bubble ranges, or set a bounty and bubble factor under ICM, bounty & stacks in the chart above.
More push/fold charts by stack: 5bb, 8bb, 10bb, 12bb, 15bb, 20bb · by seat: button, cutoff, small blind, UTG · 6-max · heads-up · big blind calling ranges · how we calculate.
Limitations
- Results are chip EV. Near the money bubble or at a final table, ICM means you should shove and especially call tighter. Use the ICM calculator for those spots.
- Charts assume everyone has the same effective stack and plays Nash. Against players who fold too much, shove wider; against players who call too much, shove tighter and value-heavy.
- Ranges stop at 20bb. Deeper than that, raising smaller is usually better than shoving.
- Hands on the edge of a range are close to break-even, so small differences between solvers do not matter much in practice.
Push/fold FAQ
When should I start playing push/fold?
Most players switch to shove-or-fold at around 10 to 15 big blinds and use it almost exclusively below 10. With a big blind ante the pot is bigger, so shoving becomes attractive slightly deeper.
Is it better to shove or min-raise?
Below about 10bb, shoving is simpler and close to optimal. Between 12 and 20bb strong players mix in smaller raises from early position, but a correct shoving strategy is a solid baseline that is very hard to exploit.
Does this work for Sit & Gos and spins?
Yes. Use the 6-handed or heads-up settings for those formats, and remember to tighten up when ICM matters, for example on the bubble of a Sit & Go.
What does the big blind ante setting mean?
With a big blind ante, the player in the big blind posts one extra big blind as an ante for the whole table, so there are 2.5 big blinds in the pot before anyone acts. Choose No ante for cash-style blind structures and the early levels of tournaments without antes.