Poker Ranges by Position: 6-Max Guide

Poker ranges widen as fewer players remain to act and as your chance of playing the hand in position improves. That is why a 6-max UTG opening range is much tighter than a button opening range, and why big-blind defense must be studied against the opener's position rather than as one universal chart.

The examples below come from PokerGTO Solver's recorded 6-max cash study baselines. Opening charts exist at 50bb and 100bb. Rake is unspecified. Opponent-specific charts labeled adapted were manually simplified from a 9-handed, ante-in-play source, so they are not verified 6-max no-ante solver exports.

Why position changes your poker range

Position affects a hand before and after the flop. Early position has more players left to act, so an open must survive more opportunities for a strong hand or 3-bet. Late position has fewer players behind and is more likely to retain the information advantage after the flop.

Three forces drive the change:

• Players left to act: every additional player increases the chance that someone holds a strong continuing range.
• Postflop position: acting last makes it easier to realize equity, control pot size and choose profitable bluffs.
• Blind incentives: the small blind is out of position after the flop, while the big blind has already invested one blind and often receives a better immediate price.

Opening percentages are summaries, not strategies by themselves. Two ranges with the same width can contain different hands and mixed frequencies. Always inspect the 13×13 matrix and model label.

Position-by-position range guide

The percentages in this section are combo-weighted totals calculated from the recorded 100bb baseline files. They describe those files only.

UTG opening range

The recorded UTG 100bb opening chart raises 10.5% of combinations. UTG acts first in 6-max, so five seats can respond and the range emphasizes hands that tolerate calls and 3-bets. The practical study boundary is more useful than memorizing the headline percentage: inspect which pocket pairs, suited broadways and offsuit broadways are pure, mixed or folded.

When a marginal open seems attractive, ask whether that hand realizes equity well out of position and whether the rake environment supports the thin edge. The baseline does not answer those game-specific questions because its rake is unspecified.

MP opening range

The MP 100bb chart raises 16.5%. One player has already folded compared with UTG, so more hands can enter, but cutoff, button and both blinds still remain. Study which suited hands appear between the UTG and MP boundaries; that difference teaches the logic of position better than memorizing two unrelated lists.

Cutoff opening range

The cutoff 100bb chart raises 21.3%. Only the button and blinds remain. The cutoff benefits from more immediate fold equity than early position and often reaches postflop with position against the blinds, but it can still be called or 3-bet by the button.

Use the cutoff chart as a bridge between early-position discipline and button aggression. Note which offsuit broadways, suited aces and suited connectors move from fold into raise.

Button opening range

The button 100bb chart raises 48.6%. The button has only two players behind and will act last after the flop when called, so the recorded range includes many more suited, connected and high-card hands.

“Open widest” does not mean “open any two.” Weak offsuit hands still suffer from poor equity and playability. Mixed low suited and connected hands sit near the boundary, and their exact value is sensitive to blind defense, rake and sizing.

Small blind strategy

The small-blind 100bb open chart raises 39.1%. Only the big blind remains, but the small blind will play out of position after a call. That makes the node structurally different from the button even when both can open wide.

Do not merge open, limp and 3-bet decisions into one “SB range.” The library also provides separate small-blind 3-bet and limp-versus-raise study spots. Choose the node that matches the action.

Big blind defense range

The overall big-blind 100bb defense baseline records 15.3% raise and 11.4% call, for 26.7% total continue. Its opponent position is marked mixed, so it is not a substitute for a specific BB-versus-BTN or BB-versus-UTG chart.

The big blind has already posted one blind, which improves the immediate price, but it usually plays out of position. The opener's range matters: defending against a narrow UTG open is different from defending against a wide button open. Matchup-specific pages are labeled adapted where the source assumptions differ.

How stack depth changes each position

The site has recorded opening charts at 50bb and 100bb. In this dataset, the 50bb opening totals are slightly wider:

These numbers should not be extrapolated into tournament push-fold or ICM advice. Stack depth changes the value of implied odds, postflop maneuverability and the cost of facing a 3-bet, but game format, sizing, ante and payout pressure can change the direction and size of an adjustment.

At depths without a published chart, use the nearest baseline to frame a question rather than pretending it is a solution. Build or consult a model that actually includes the target stack and game assumptions.

How to read a position range matrix

A standard range chart has 169 starting-hand classes:

• Pocket pairs such as AA and 77 run down the diagonal.
• Suited hands such as AKs appear above the diagonal.
• Offsuit hands such as AKo appear below the diagonal.

Each class represents a different number of physical combinations: six for a pocket pair, four for a suited hand and twelve for an offsuit hand. That is why counting colored cells does not produce an accurate range percentage.

In the PokerGTO charts, selecting a cell shows recorded raise, call and fold frequencies. A 40% raise / 60% fold cell is a mixed study baseline. It does not mean the hand is equally strong on every table, and it does not justify real-time assistance where platform rules forbid it.

A 15-minute position-range study routine

1. Three minutes: open one position at one stack and read the model assumptions.
2. Five minutes: hide the chart and reconstruct the pure opens plus the boundary hands.
3. Five minutes: use Range Wizard or the preflop quiz to test related decisions.
4. Two minutes: record the two hands you misclassified and why.

Repeat the same position before adding a new one. Once the opening boundary is stable, add facing-3-bet and blind-defense nodes. This sequencing connects actions instead of turning the range library into disconnected screenshots.