Every tournament player eventually finds themselves short-stacked. When your stack drops to around 10–15 big blinds, the normal raise-and-play-postflop approach stops working. The simplest and most profitable strategy becomes push or fold: either move all-in or fold, with no small raises and no limping.
Why push/fold works
With a short stack, a standard raise commits a big share of your chips. If someone re-raises, you're priced in to call anyway. Moving all-in instead does two things:
- It maximizes fold equity. Opponents must risk a lot to call, so you win the blinds and antes more often without a showdown.
- It removes difficult decisions. You never face a shove after investing a third of your stack, and you never have to play a flop out of position with almost nothing behind.
The blinds and antes you pick up when everyone folds are worth far more than they look. Stealing them once or twice an orbit keeps a short stack alive.
When should you switch to push/fold?
A practical guide:
| Effective stack | Approach |
|---|---|
| Over 25 big blinds | Play normally: standard raises and postflop play. |
| 15–25 big blinds | Mix small raises with re-shoves over other players' opens. |
| 10–15 big blinds | Mostly push/fold from late position; small raises still possible early. |
| Under 10 big blinds | Pure push/fold. |
"Effective stack" means the smaller of your stack and the stacks of the players left to act. If you have 30 big blinds but the big blind has 8, you are effectively playing an 8-big-blind pot against them.
What changes your shoving range
- Position. The fewer players left to act, the wider you can shove. From the button or small blind you can move in with a very wide range; under the gun you need a strong hand because many players can wake up with a better one.
- Stack size. The shorter you are, the wider you shove. At 3–5 big blinds almost any two cards from the small blind are a profitable shove.
- Antes. Antes make the pot bigger before anyone acts, so stealing is worth more. Shoving ranges get noticeably wider when antes are in play.
- Opponents. If the players behind you call too rarely, shove wider; if they call too often, tighten up and shove more value hands.
- ICM. Near the bubble or at a final table, calling ranges tighten sharply, which lets you shove wider. See our guide to ICM in poker.
The calling side matters too
Push/fold isn't just about shoving. When a short stack moves in on you, you need to know how wide to call. Calling ranges are tighter than shoving ranges because the caller has to win at showdown, while the shover also wins every time everyone folds. Our big blind calling chart shows exactly which hands to call with by stack size and shover position.
Common push/fold mistakes
- Waiting for a premium hand. At 8 big blinds the blinds take your stack fast. Shove the hands the chart says to shove, even if they look weak.
- Min-raising and folding to a shove. This loses chips you can't afford to lose. Shove or fold instead.
- Calling too loosely. Shoving wide is correct; calling wide usually isn't.
- Ignoring antes. A chart without antes is too tight for most modern tournaments.
How to learn push/fold ranges
The ranges come from game theory: a Nash equilibrium where neither the shover nor the caller can improve by changing strategy. You don't need to memorize every hand. Start by learning ranges for your most common spots, like the button and small blind at 10 big blinds, then use the interactive push/fold chart and its built-in trainer to drill the rest. For specific stack sizes, see the 10bb and 15bb charts, and for knockout events use the PKO push/fold chart.