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Registration LoginWhat are the optimal opening ranges (EV+) preflop in tournaments and cash games? Here is the tool to know the answer!
In cash games, you will be at 100 big blinds most of the time without ante and therefore, you will have to rely on the appropriate section to know your opening range. As for tournaments, you will be able to find the right ranges depending on your number of blinds (between 20 and 100) and antes (10%, 12.5% and 20%)
Note that the opening profitability calculations were performed with an opening sizing of 2.5BB. If you open smaller, you will decrease your folding equity and if you open larger, you will not be able to open the same range profitably. You will need to adjust accordingly. But 2.5BB is a very common and often recommended sizing in both cash games and tournaments
Hands in "white" must be laid down (folded).
The hands in "gray" are marginal opens, meaning that their EV (Expected Value) is very low, less than 1% over the long term. When in doubt or at a difficult table with very good players, always fold those hands.
Hands in "blue" are Open/Fold, meaning that when faced with a preflop 3-bet, you will have to fold your hand.
Hands in "yellow" are hands to be opened and with which you will simply want to call a 3-bet (not 4-bet). Note that sometimes you will see AA in this category. To be balanced, you won't want to systematically 4-bet AA. Sometimes you just want to call. This will protect your call range. Some players will consistently 4-bet their AA and KK and consistently call 3-bets with QQ and JJ (which makes them easy to read). To be more difficult to read, you will occasionally want to have watches like AA in your call 3-bet range.
Hands in "green" are hands to open and 4-bet against a 3-bet. We'll call these hands Open/4bet/fold. In other words, 4-bet bluff hands. Again, to be balanced and hard to read, you won't want to 4bet your AA and KK on every occurrence. A player who only 4-bets AA and KK will have a 4% 4-bet %, which is too low. A good player who sees these stats will make big folds against him and that player will not get any action with his big hands. For a player to be well balanced, he must have a 4-bet/bluff range. A hand like A5s is an excellent 4-bet bluff hand since you will have an ace blocker (your opponents will have AA at a lower frequency) and lots of fold equity. Especially in tournaments, people will give a lot of credit to your 4-bet. Against a 5-bet (all in), you can fold with peace of mind since your opponent will too often have a hand like AA, KK or AK. Your 4-bet bluff does not have to work every time to be profitable. Also, by making more frequent 4-bets, you will get more action with your AA and KK.
Hands in "red" are open/3bet/4bet/all in hands. In other words, we play them very aggressively to go all in. Depending on your number of big blinds, these hands will range from premium (a premium hand is an extremely strong hand like AA or KK) to very strong.
When you have less than 20BB in your tournament, you can refer to our Push or Fold chart depending on your position and number of big blinds