Reference / 6-max NLHE cash
NLHE preflop, one stack depth at a time
Everyone publishes a 100bb chart. Stacks are rarely 100bb. These are the 6-max opening, 3-betting, and defending frequencies at eight depths from 200bb down to 20bb, read straight from eight real solves. The button opens 45% of hands at 100bb and 32.3% at 20bb; under the gun barely moves. Here is where depth bites and where it doesn't.
Open-raise width by position and depth
Percent of all hands opened (raise-first-in), reach-weighted. Read a column top to bottom to see a position tighten or loosen as stacks change. The story is not uniform: the button sheds a fifth of its range going from 100bb to 20bb, while under the gun holds near 18% the whole way.
| Depth | UTG | HJ | CO | BTN | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200bb | 18.2 | 22.3 | 28.5 | 41.3 | 42 |
| 150bb | 18.6 | 23.1 | 29 | 41.8 | 42.8 |
| 100bb | 18.7 | 23.3 | 29.9 | 45 | 40.2 |
| 70bb | 17.6 | 21.7 | 27.6 | 41.5 | 34.7 |
| 50bb | 18.6 | 23.5 | 29.7 | 40.9 | 44.3 |
| 40bb | 18.6 | 22.5 | 28.4 | 39.8 | 30.2 |
| 30bb | 19.6 | 23.7 | 28.6 | 37.2 | 47.7 |
| 20bb | 19 | 21.2 | 25.3 | 32.3 | 50.2 |
SB is raise-first-in only; it also limps some hands (its total entry runs from 47.4% at 100bb to 50.4% at 20bb), and the raise-vs-limp split shifts by depth. Full numbers in the CSV.
Big-blind defense tracks the price of the open, not the stack
From 70bb up, the button opens to 2.5bb. Shorter, the size moves around - and the big blind's defense moves with it, not with the stack. That one price change drives the whole downstream tree, and the clearest place to see it is the defense against a button open:
| Depth | 200 | 150 | 100 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 30 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTN opens to | 2.5bb | 2.5bb | 2.5bb | 2.5bb | 2.5bb | 2bb | 2.25bb | 2bb |
| BB defends | 41.7% | 42% | 42.9% | 41.8% | 37.7% | 61.1% | 41.1% | 52.1% |
Defense sits at 37.7-42.9% wherever the button opens 2.5bb (50/70/100/150/200bb), and climbs to 52.1-61.1% at the depths where the open drops to a 2bb min-raise (20/40bb). Cheaper to call, so the big blind calls far more. Note the open size is not monotone down the ladder - it falls, comes back up, and falls again - and defense follows the size every time rather than the stack. That is the whole point: price, not depth. This is pot-odds math you already trust, with the actual numbers attached.
What the button folds when it gets short
The button opens 95 of the 169 hand classes at 100bb and 66 at 20bb. These are the 29 it stops opening - the exact bottom of the range, in order:
Small suited kings that flop dominated, weak suited connectors that can't realize their equity short, offsuit broadways, and the small pairs whose whole value was set-mining. Under the gun, by contrast, the same 100bb-to-20bb move cuts only 7: A2s, K7s, K5s, 76s, 66, 65s, 54s. A range that is already nutted doesn't need to tighten when it gets short.
Four hands, all the way down
Open frequency from the button, 200bb to 20bb:
| Hand | 200 | 150 | 100 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 30 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K5s | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 76s | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| Q9o | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99 | 100 | 3 |
22 is a pure open until 70bb, then folds as the implied odds to set-mine disappear. K5s opens at every depth - a suited king holds nut-flush and blocker value that survives. 76s only dies at the very bottom. Q9o holds through 30bb, then all but vanishes at 20bb. The threshold is exactly K5s: it opens all the way down while K4s and lower drop off.
3-betting tightens for the button, widens for the blinds
3-bet frequency doesn't move uniformly either. The big blind 3-bets (or jams) the button more as it gets short - 12.5% at 100bb, 17.5% at 20bb - because jamming replaces flatting. The button 3-betting the cutoff goes the other way, easing off short because position lets it flat instead.
| 3-bet vs open | 200 | 150 | 100 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 30 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BB vs BTN | 15.4 | 15 | 12.5 | 14.3 | 15.9 | 14.6 | 18 | 17.5 |
| SB vs BTN | 15 | 14.8 | 14.5 | 13.1 | 14.6 | 14 | 16.2 | 17.8 |
| BTN vs CO | 13.3 | 12.9 | 12.3 | 12.1 | 9.5 | 11.9 | 10.2 | 0 |
Percent of all hands. At short stacks the blind 3-bets are largely jams, merged into the raise channel by the solve.
How these were computed
Each number is reach-weighted over all 1,326 preflop combinations: for a spot, sum every hand's solver frequency times its combo count, divided by 1,326. Nothing is rounded to a chart or smoothed by hand. The frequencies are decoded straight from the same strategy files the solver interface reads.
As a check that the decode is right, the generator runs an independent EV test. The solve stores each action's EV on a "fold = 0" basis, so any hand a position opens at a mixed frequency (not 0%, not 100%) must be exactly indifferent between raising and folding - its raise EV has to be 0. Across every non-blind opening spot in all eight solves, every mixing hand lands on 0.000bb. If the decode or the hand indexing were wrong, they wouldn't.
One honest limit: at short stacks some spots let a player raise-to a size or shove, and the solve records both as one raise channel, so a short-stack "raise" or "3-bet" here means raise-or-jam. Open sizes are reported separately (see the open-size row above; they are not monotone in depth). Postflop is a separate story; this page is preflop only.
Questions
Why does the button open tighter at 20bb than at 100bb?
Two reasons the data makes concrete. Short stacks get jammed on more, so the thin hands at the bottom of the button range (small suited kings, weak offsuit broadways, the smallest pairs) stop showing a profit and drop out - the button opening range falls from 95 hands at 100bb to 66 at 20bb. And a 22 that opens to set-mine at 100bb has no implied odds left at 20bb, so it folds: the solves open 22 from the button 100% at 100bb and 0% at 20bb.
Why does the big blind defend so much wider at 50bb?
Because the open shrinks. Where the button opens 2.5bb (50/70/100/150/200bb) the big blind defends 37.7-42.9%; where it drops to a 2bb min-raise (20/40bb) defense runs 52.1-61.1%. What moves it is the price, not the depth - the open size is not monotone down the ladder, and defense follows the size rather than the stack every time. Same range-math a good player runs at the table, quantified: cheaper open, wider defense.
What is "raise-or-jam"?
At short stacks some nodes let a player raise to a size or shove all-in, and the solve stores those as one "raise" channel. So a short-stack raise frequency on this page is raise-or-jam, not a raise-to size specifically. It is called out where it applies. Open sizes are separate, and they are not monotone in depth: the button opens 2.5bb at 50/70/100/150/200bb and min-raises to 2bb at 20/40bb. The table below prints the size at every depth.
Which stakes and rake are these solves?
Eight 6-max cash solves from MonkerSolver, one per stack depth from 20bb to 200bb, on a 5% cap 1.5bb rake, except 20/30/50/100bb on 5% cap 2bb - the depths we re-solved ourselves. Rake matters preflop: it is why the smallest suited and offsuit hands sit right on the open/fold line, and why the re-solved columns are worth reading on their own terms. Every number here is reach-weighted over all 1,326 preflop combos and reproduces the solver's own strategy; the method note and the EV cross-check are below.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes. The full table is a CC BY 4.0 download at the bottom of the page - use it with attribution to SolvePoker. Or open the same solves in the solver and read any spot yourself, free, no account for preflop.
Read any of these spots yourself
All eight solves are in the solver, every position and depth, with the per-hand frequencies behind these averages. Preflop is free, no account. Want the actual grids? The preflop charts render every hand at every depth.
Open the NLHE solver