Preflop
16 posts.
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The Big Blind (BB) in Poker: Chips Already In, a Seat Built Around Defence
The big blind posts a full big blind before the deal, acts last preflop and gets the best pot odds at the table when facing an open, but is out of position after the flop almost every time. This post covers what makes the big blind special, why your defending range should follow whoever opened, the default defence frequencies against all five positions, and the most common mistakes.
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The Button (BTN) in Poker: The Most Profitable Seat
The button always makes the last decision after the flop and opens 46.9% of hands, the widest first-in range at the table and the seat that wins the most over the long run. This post covers what makes the button special, why you can open nearly half your hands there, the steal target to aim for, and three ways of playing that waste this advantage.
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The Cutoff (CO) in Poker: A Positional Edge, but Watch for Attacks From the Button
The CO is the seat before the button. Only the button and the two blinds are left behind you, the opening range is 29.1%, and stealing starts here. This post covers what the cutoff is like, how the opening range expands into suited hands, why the button is the player to watch most closely, and the common mistakes.
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Middle Position (MP) in Poker: A Little Better Than UTG, but Still Choose Your Hands Carefully
MP is the seat after UTG, also called the HJ (Hijack) at 6-max, with four players still behind you and an opening range of 18.9%. This post covers what middle position is like, which hands it adds to the UTG range, which seats count as middle position at a 9-handed table, and the most common mistakes.
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The Small Blind (SB) in Poker: The Hardest Seat to Play, So Raise or Fold
The small blind has already posted half a big blind and has only the big blind left behind it preflop, yet after the flop it is at a positional disadvantage against anyone. This post covers what makes the small blind special, why its rule is raise or fold, what to do when someone else has opened, and the most common mistakes.
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Under the Gun (UTG) in Poker: First to Decide Preflop, the Highest Bar at the Table
UTG is the first seat to act preflop, with five players still to speak behind you, and its opening range is just 11.2%. This post covers what the seat is like, which hands to open, why KJo and small pairs get folded, and the three mistakes beginners make most often here.
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Why Beginners Lose at Poker: No Sense of Position and Range
The most common beginner leak is not misplaying one particular hand, it is wanting to see every hand from every seat. Using one hand of A6o, this post shows why a bad seat calls for a stronger hand, then brings in ranges: the opening ranges of the five positions differ by a factor of four, and a range chart is the best place for a beginner to start.
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What a 4-Bet Is in Texas Hold'em: Do You Need AA or KK to 4-Bet?
A 4-bet is a relatively rare action, and most players only ever make one holding AA, KK, QQ or AK. Those are strong hands — but once an opponent has read the pattern, that range saves him a great deal of money.
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What Fold to 3-Bet Is in Texas Hold'em: The 65% Ceiling Measures Your Opening Range, Not Your Nerve
Fold to 3-bet is how often you fold after opening and facing a re-raise, with a target of 65% or below and anything past 70% flagged as a serious leak. The reason it runs high is rarely timidity — play RushCraft's default practice ranges and it lands around 85%, and the problem happened back at the open. This post covers how the denominator works, where the 69% arithmetic behind the line comes from, how wide the continuing range has to be, what call 3-bet tells you, and why it is the slowest-converging number in the series.
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The Complete Guide to Preflop Play in Texas Hold'em: Position, Ranges, Six Spots and Seven Numbers
Preflop is the one street every hand passes through, and the only one where the spots repeat often enough to be systematised. This post is the map for every preflop post on the site: the three questions to answer before you press a button, position and ranges, which button each of the six spots calls for, the three sizings you need and the seven numbers to check yourself against, with every stop linking to its own post.
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What a Cold Call Is in Texas Hold'em: The One Number With a Ceiling and No Floor, 5% or Below
A cold call is when you call a raise having put no money in yourself this round, and the target is 5% or below. It is the only statistic on the site with no lower bound — calling has never been an action worth a frequency. This post covers what it costs you (a capped range, the players it invites in behind you, a price 50% worse than the big blind's), the five conditions that decide whether this particular hand is a call, and why 50 opportunities are only enough to catch the outrageous.
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How to Play Pocket Aces: Why You Should Not Just Shove
The first instinct with pocket aces is to move all in, and that is exactly how the most profitable hand in poker turns into one of the least profitable. Three preflop questions: why shoving costs you money, how to play aces at a table where nobody 3-bets and everybody calls, and whether to 3-bet or trap when someone opens in front of you.
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What a 3-Bet Is in Texas Hold'em: The 8-12% Target Band Averages Six Different Spots
3-bet is how often you re-raise when facing exactly one raise, with a target band of 8-12%. But that single number averages away six completely different spots — against an UTG open the value hands worth re-raising are only the top 1.7%; against a button open they are 5.3%. This post covers how the denominator works, what too low and too high each cost you, why 70% is the line on your opponent's fold-to-3-bet, and how large a sample it takes before the number counts.
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Free Texas Hold'em Preflop Range Charts: All 15 Grids, Opening and Big Blind Defence
Free 13x13 preflop range charts: opening ranges for five positions, plus the big blind's calling and 3-betting ranges against each of them — 15 grids listed in one go. Every cell is drawn from the defaults in RushCraft's preflop trainer. No signup, no email.
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What ATS Is in Texas Hold'em: Reading Your Steal Frequency, Three Positions and Three Targets
ATS is how often you raise first in from the CO, the button or the small blind when nobody has entered the pot. At six-max the blinds take about 25bb out of you every 100 hands, and stealing is the main channel for winning it back. This post covers how the denominator works, the target band for each of the three seats, what too low and too high each mean, how to respond to an opponent's ATS, and how large a sample it takes before the number counts.
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What VPIP Is in Texas Hold'em: It Only Becomes a Player Read Next to PFR
VPIP is how often you voluntarily put money in before the flop, and it measures how wide your range is; PFR measures how aggressive it is. What is actually useful is the gap between them. With reference values for every seat at a six-max table, three opponent profiles and what to do about each, and how many hands it takes before the number means anything at all.